TY  - JOUR
A1  - Niemeyer, Bastian
A1  - Epp, Laura Saskia
A1  - Stoof-Leichsenring, Kathleen Rosemarie
A1  - Pestryakova, Luidmila Agafyevna
A1  - Herzschuh, Ulrike
T1  - A comparison of sedimentary DNA and pollen from lake sediments in recording vegetation composition at the Siberian treeline
JF  - Molecular ecology resources
N2  - Reliable information on past and present vegetation is important to project future changes, especially for rapidly transitioning areas such as the boreal treeline. To study past vegetation, pollen analysis is common, while current vegetation is usually assessed by field surveys. Application of detailed sedimentary DNA (sedDNA) records has the potential to enhance our understanding of vegetation changes, but studies systematically investigating the power of this proxy are rare to date. This study compares sedDNA metabarcoding and pollen records from surface sediments of 31 lakes along a north-south gradient of increasing forest cover in northern Siberia (Taymyr peninsula) with data from field surveys in the surroundings of the lakes. sedDNA metabarcoding recorded 114 plant taxa, about half of them to species level, while pollen analyses identified 43 taxa, both exceeding the 31 taxa found by vegetation field surveys. Increasing Larix percentages from north to south were consistently recorded by all three methods and principal component analyses based on percentage data of vegetation surveys and DNA sequences separated tundra from forested sites. Comparisons of the ordinations using procrustes and protest analyses show a significant fit among all compared pairs of records. Despite similarities of sedDNA and pollen records, certain idiosyncrasies, such as high percentages of Alnus and Betula in all pollen and high percentages of Salix in all sedDNA spectra, are observable. Our results from the tundra to single-tree tundra transition zone show that sedDNA analyses perform better than pollen in recording site-specific richness (i.e., presence/absence of taxa in the vicinity of the lake) and perform as well as pollen in tracing vegetation composition.
KW  - environmental DNA
KW  - metabarcoding
KW  - pollen
KW  - Siberia
KW  - trnL marker
KW  - vegetation
Y1  - 2017
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1111/1755-0998.12689
SN  - 1755-098X
SN  - 1755-0998
VL  - 17
SP  - e46
EP  - e62
PB  - Wiley
CY  - Hoboken
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Balint, Miklos
A1  - Marton, Orsolya
A1  - Schatz, Marlene
A1  - Düring, Rolf-Alexander
A1  - Grossart, Hans-Peter
T1  - Proper experimental design requires randomization/balancing of molecular ecology experiments
JF  - Ecology and evolution
N2  - Properly designed (randomized and/or balanced) experiments are standard in ecological research. Molecular methods are increasingly used in ecology, but studies generally do not report the detailed design of sample processing in the laboratory. This may strongly influence the interpretability of results if the laboratory procedures do not account for the confounding effects of unexpected laboratory events. We demonstrate this with a simple experiment where unexpected differences in laboratory processing of samples would have biased results if randomization in DNA extraction and PCR steps do not provide safeguards. We emphasize the need for proper experimental design and reporting of the laboratory phase of molecular ecology research to ensure the reliability and interpretability of results.
KW  - batch effect
KW  - bias
KW  - DNA extraction
KW  - environmental DNA
KW  - laboratory practice
KW  - lake community
KW  - metabarcoding
KW  - nondemonic intrusions
KW  - PCR
KW  - sediment
Y1  - 2018
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.3687
SN  - 2045-7758
VL  - 8
IS  - 3
SP  - 1786
EP  - 1793
PB  - Wiley
CY  - Hoboken
ER  -