World Oceans Day : Deep Dive Discussion (June 8, 2025)
Dr. Jesse McNichol, St. Francis Xavier University
eDNA Sequencing for Coastal Ecosystem Monitoring
- Food / oxygen production (base of food webs)
- Nutrient regeneration
- Greenhouse gas production / consumption
- Influence geology, climate, chemistry, and biology of Earth
Microbial life
Microbes are critical in marine systems
But what about the future?
Microbial life
But what about the future?
How will climate change and coastal pollution affect "ecosystem services" that microbes provide to us?
NASA PACE
How to monitor these dynamic and changing systems?
How to monitor these dynamic and changing systems?
ESA Copernicus
Early sequencing
"Next Generation Sequencing" (NGS)
DNA sequencing is now very cheap!
An avalanche of data!
Image credit: Chavez et al., 2021
Cheap DNA sequencing → "eDNA profiles"
Image credit: Chavez et al., 2021
Cheap DNA sequencing → "eDNA profiles"
Vincent and Vardi, 2023
eDNA profiles → ecosystem monitoring across time & space
- Accessible to non-experts, community organizations, affordable and sustainable
- Leading to collaborative, interdisciplinary research asking exciting new questions
- A record of changing ecosystems, and a possible warning for state changes
eDNA sequencing's future
After the lapse of many years, possibly a century, the student of the future will have access to the original record of faunal conditions in California."
-Annie Montague Alexander, from "Why Ecology Needs Natural History"
Today's data will help us understand the future
Closing thought
At a time when forces are trying to distract and disrupt the scientific enterprise, doing the important work of finding and sharing the truth is now a great act of resistance."
-H. Holden Thorp, 2025 (link)
Thanks for your attention!
Microbe art: @claudia_traboni
stfxmicroeco.ca | jmcnicho@stfx.ca
