Day 7 - eDNA

Hi, I am Paulina, on the cruise I am responsible for sampling eDNA to compare the biodiversity found inside and outside of eddies. eDNA stands for environmental desoxyribonucleic acid. One can imagine it as long molecules that got released from different organisms (e.g. when an animal pees, it releases lots of this molecules) into the surrounding and are then feely moving in the environment. eDNA can be found almost anywhere: in the air, on or in the ground and in the water. During this cruise we investigate eDNA found in the seawater. For that, we manually filtrate 1.5 liters of seawater through a 0.22µm filter (see picture). This, even though does not looks like it, is an energy demanding job! Once the water is filtrated the samples are been frozen and transported to a lab where the eDNA sequences get extracted from the filtrates and analyzed. The analysis of eDNA allows us to tell which species were present in the water at the time of sampling. With this study we hope to get a better understanding about the transport of eDNA in the water, and about the impact eddies have on the species occurrence.