Replication levels, false presences and the estimation of the presence/absence from eDNA metabarcoding data

Environmental DNA (eDNA) metabarcoding is increasingly used to study the present and past biodiversity. eDNA analyses often rely on amplification of very small quantities or degraded DNA. To avoid missing detection of taxa that are actually present (false negatives), multiple extractions and amplifications of the same samples are often performed. However, the level of replication needed for reliable estimates of the presence/absence patterns remains an unaddressed topic. Furthermore, degraded DNA and PCR/sequencing errors might produce false positives. We used simulations and empirical data to evaluate the level of replication required for accurate detection of targeted taxa in different contexts and to assess…

• AN
  Agence Nationale de la Recherche

  Award: ANR 11 BSV7 020 01
• FP
  Fondation pour la Recherche sur la Biodiversite
• CN
  Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique
• IN
  Institut National de Recherche en Sciences et Technologies pour l'Environnement et l'Agriculture