The Intersection of Forensic Techniques with Ecological Issues

Molecular forensic techniques to trace DNA from surfaces and sediments have played important roles in conservation and species protection for decades, but their application in the field of ecology is not as well established. In the 1990s, forensic sequencing was applied to non-human samples, illuminating how DNA shed in the environment can be used to track species, populations, and individuals, with implications for animal conservation and management cases. Concurrently, molecular markers such as DNA barcodes were increasingly being published for systematics and biodiversity surveys. Now, forensic techniques are being applied as metabarcoding and metagenomics for ecology and conservation, taking advantage of massive biodiversity DNA reference databases to trace and characterize everything in environmental samples from individuals to whole communities, revealing the provenance and timing of events. Sequencing environments across space and time provides key ecosystem biometrics that point to the causes—and often the culprits—of ecological change. Ecological forensics broadens translational research opportunities in conservation, policy, and environmental justice. This chapter specifically focuses on the increased use of environmental DNA (eDNA), which can be collected from soil, sediment, water, or air, in forensic ecological research from real-time to deep time. The rise of this new subdiscipline has the potential to shape the future of biodiversity management and discovery globally.