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Wildlife managers can more easily mitigate the effects of invasive species if action takes place before a population becomes established. Such early detection requires sensitive survey tools that can detect low numbers of individuals. Due to their high sensitivity, environmental DNA (eDNA) surveys hold promise as an early detection method for aquatic invasive species. Quantification of eDNA amounts may also provide data on species abundance and timing of an organism’s presence, allowing managers to successfully combat the spread of ecologically damaging species. To better understand the link between eDNA and an organism’s presence, it is crucial to know how eDNA is shed into the environment. Our study used quantitative PCR (qPCR) and controlled laboratory experiments to measure the amount of eDNA that two species of invasive bigheaded carps ( Hypophthalmichthys nobilis and Hypophthalmichthys molitrix ) shed into the water. We first measured how much eDNA a single fish sheds and the variability of these measurements. Then, in a series of manipulative lab experiments, we studied how temperature, biomass (grams of fish), and diet affect the shedding rate of eDNA by these fish. We found that eDNA amounts exhibit a positive relationship with fish biomass, and that feeding could increase the amount of eDNA shed by ten-fold, whereas water temperature did not have an effect. Our results demonstrate that quantification of eDNA may be useful for predicting carp density, as well as densities of other rare or invasive species. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The canyon treefrog, Hyla arenicolor, is a wide-ranging hylid found from southwestern US into southern Mexico. Recent studies have shown this species to have a complex evolutionary history, with several phylogeographically distinct lineages, a probable cryptic species, and multiple episodes of mitochondrial introgression with the sister group, the H. eximia complex. We aimed to use genome wide AFLP markers to better resolve relationships within this group. As in other studies, our inferred phylogeny not only provides evidence for repeated mitochondrial introgression between H. arenicolor lineages and H. eximia/H. wrightorum, but it also affords more resolution within the main H. arenicolor clade than was previously achieved with sequence data. However, as with a previous study, the placement of a lineage of H. arenicolor whose distribution is centered in the Balsas Basin of Mexico remains poorly resolved, perhaps due to past hybridization with the H. eximia complex. Furthermore, the AFLP data set shows no differentiation among lineages from the Grand Canyon and Colorado Plateau despite their large mitochondrial sequence divergence. Finally, our results infer a well-supported sister relationship between this combined Colorado Plateau/Grand Canyon lineage and the Sonoran Desert lineage, a relationship that strongly contradicts conclusions drawn from the mtDNA evidence. Our study provides a basis for further behavioral and ecological speciation studies of this system and highlights the importance of multi-taxon (species) sampling in phylogenetic and phylogeographic studies. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]