Biomonitoring in the Anthropocene: Urban estuary environmental DNA tracks marine fish, terrestrial wildlife, and human diet
Mark Y Stoeckle, Jesse H Ausubel · 2026
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Description
Mark Stoeckle and Jesse Ausubel spent a year scooping water from New York City's East River to see what DNA could reveal, in this 2026 PLOS ONE study. The rocky channel is hard to survey with nets and receives treated wastewater, so the team sampled weekly and counted genetic traces left by vertebrates.
Fish DNA rose tenfold in summer and shifted with the seasons as expected, and two fish species appeared that a 2016 survey had missed. Wastewater carried DNA from pets, city mammals, and land birds, and the mix of food-animal DNA closely matched national eating statistics. The cheap shoreline routine offers cities a way to track wildlife and even diet.
Catalog record
| CREATOR | Mark Y Stoeckle, Jesse H Ausubel |
|---|---|
| YEAR | 2026 |
| COLLECTION | PAPERS |
| FORMAT | TXT |
| FILE SIZE | 33588 |
| LICENSE | CC_BY |
| RIGHTS | CC BY |
| SOURCE | PLOS |