TY  - JOUR
A1  - Riaz, Maria
A1  - Kuemmerlen Heinrich, Mathias
A1  - Wittwer, Claudia
A1  - Cocchiararo, Berardino
A1  - Khaliq, Imran
A1  - Pfenninger, Markus
A1  - Nowak, Carsten
T1  - Combining environmental DNA and species distribution modeling to evaluate reintroduction success of a freshwater fish
T2  - Ecological Applications
N2  - Active species reintroduction is an important conservation tool when aiming for the restoration of biological communities and ecosystems. The effective monitoring of reintroduction success is a crucial factor in this process. Here, we used a combination of environmental DNA (eDNA) techniques and species distribution models (SDMs) to evaluate the success of recent reintroductions of the freshwater fish Alburnoides bipunctatus in central Germany. We built SDMs without and with eDNA presence data to locate further suitable reintroduction sites and potentially overlooked populations of the species. We successfully detected eDNA of A. bipunctatus at all reintroduction sites, as well as several adjacent sites mostly in downstream direction, which supports the success of reintroduction efforts. eDNA‐based species detection considerably improved SDMs for A. bipunctatus, which allowed to identify species presence in previously unknown localities. Our results confirm the usefulness of eDNA techniques as standard tool to monitor reintroduced fish populations. We propose that combining eDNA with SDMs is a highly effective approach for long‐term monitoring of reintroduction success in aquatic species.
KW  - Alburnoides bipunctatus
KW  - environmental DNA
KW  - monitoring
KW  - noninvasive species
KW  - reintroduction
KW  - species distribution models
KW  - Water Framework Directive
Y1  - 2019
UR  - http://publikationen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/56313
UR  - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:hebis:30:3-563133
SN  - 1939-5582
SN  - 1051-0761
VL  - 30.2020
IS  - 2), Article e02034
PB  - Wiley
CY  - [New York]
ER  -