Project Description

Project Context :

Monitoring the reproductive phenology of lake fish is crucial for assessing the status of populations, detecting declines, and adapting management measures. Traditional monitoring methods (gillnet fishing, visual counts) are often restrictive (time-consuming, ineffective for low-density populations, and sometimes lethal). Environmental DNA (eDNA) offers a non-invasive, sensitive, and simple alternative in the field. Combined with new ultra-sensitive quantitative approaches such as digital PCR, it could enable robust abundance estimates to characterize the reproductive periods of fish in lakes.

Project Objectives :

The main objective of the QuantiFish project is to develop and evaluate the effectiveness of eDNA approaches coupled with digital PCR to monitor the reproductive phenology of lake fish populations, in comparison with traditional methods (net fishing, visual counts). These developments have targeted four species of economic, ecological, and heritage interest: whitefish, Arctic char, pike, and perch. Secondary objectives focus on technical optimizations, such as the choice of genomic targets, sampling and filtration methods.

Project Results

To go further

Useful Links :

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fishres.2023.106708

Contact : marine.vautier@inrae.fr