Part 1
When does depth matter?
Sampling eDNA at the seawater surface is relatively easy, but many MPAs in Canada reside in deep water. If we are interested in benthic-associated fauna, at what bottom depth should we switch to bottom-sampling? How does biodiversity information vary with distance from the bottom? These questions are the basis of our work in deep-water habitats in the British Columbia and Maritime regions of Canada. |
Part 2
200 samples under the sea: Optimizing Spatial Sampling
How many samples are required to robustly detect biodiversity change over time in large coastal regions? How should those samples be distributed across habitat types to return maximum certainty about species occurrence with the fewest samples? Part 2 of the investigation aims to answer these questions by oversampling across a region with known habitat types, so that subsampling approaches can be compared and optimized. |
Part 3
Deep space: Optimizing Spatial Sampling in Deep Marine Habitats
How can we account for deeper, more homogenous regions with lower biodiversity? Will the spatial density needed for sampling be lower in these regions as well? Part 3 of the project compensates for the broad spectrum of densities investigated in Part 2, as most MPAs are substantially deeper than the depths that are previously covered. Additional surveys in Part 3 will cover deep ocean depth habitats (>200m), and increase the applicability of our work to the full range of MPAs. |