Link to agenda HERE.
8:30am-5pm
This session is intended to orient environmental managers to the basics of eDNA including how it is collected, processed, and interpreted. This session is targeted towards environmental managers. The goal is to prepare managers so that they can actively participate in sessions the following days. Will feature a morning seminar session to introduce eDNA approaches and applications, and afternoon sessions focused on lab, field, and computational methods. This is primarily an in-person event, with some of the lecture components available online.
Below is a list of example topics to be included.
Morning seminar (9am-12pm)
- The basics of eDNA for environmental managers
- Description of example eDNA applications, including invasive and endangered species monitoring, biodiversity, bioassessment, and more
- Time, costs, and infrastructure needed to implement an eDNA program
Poster Session (12pm-1pm)
Afternoon lab, field, and bioinformatics sessions (1pm-5pm)
- Field sampling basics for water, soils, sediments, and biofilms
- Lab methods: differences among qPCR, ddPCR, and DNA metabarcode sequencing
- Mind the gap: DNA reference libraries
- Bioinformatics pipelines: what are my choices and how much do they matter?
- The data deluge: metadata reporting standards and how to manage DNA databases