Project
Development of new eDNA tools to detect aquatic invasive plants in Upper Mississippi River Basin
January 2024 - December 2026
Personnel
- Lynn Waterhouse, Co-Principal Investigator
- Richard Erickson, Co-Principal Investigator
- Danelle Larson, Co-Principal Investigator
- Stephen Spear, Co-Principal Investigator
Participating Agencies
We will develop portable and rapid environmental DNA multispecies sequencing protocols (using the Nanopore MinION device) for detecting invasive aquatic plants through water samples. These tools will then be validated within the Upper Mississippi River Basin through comparison with ongoing, traditional aquatic plant field collections through the Upper Mississippi River Restoration Program and Minnesota’s Shallow Lakes Program. The results of this project provide guidance for new eDNA-based monitoring programs, including assessing the feasibility of these surveillance tools being used by future citizen science monitoring programs.