Daniel Baptista

The power of environmental DNA to advance our understanding of the world around us has been growing for decades, and scientists and decision-makers are increasingly driving forward its uses and applications. Yet while the field has grown, the opportunity for researchers working in eDNA to connect beyond one-on-one meetings and informal networks has been thin, largely relegated to individual sessions at larger meetings that have a different disciplinary focus.

That’s about to change. During the last week of October, scientists from around the world will convene in Seattle for the inaugural Global eDNA Conference. For three days, researchers will gather to advance the discipline in a way that hasn’t been possible before: in-person, as a community. 

UW professors Shana Hirsch and Ryan Kelly, both in the College of the Environment’s School of Marine and Environmental Affairs, spearheaded the conference, which is co-hosted by the Marine Technology Society’s eDNA Committee and the UW’s eDNA Collaborative.

“The technology of environmental DNA has come a long way,” said Kelly. “We’ve never had a global eDNA meeting, and this felt like an opportunity to try and bring the world together in Seattle.”

Environmental DNA — or eDNA, for short — is trace genetic material that organisms leave behind in their environment. Small water or air samples contain vast amounts of such material and can provide a straightforward and non-invasive way to collect and analyze a host of biological information. Detecting DNA in the local environment allows researchers to identify the presence and absence of species in a given locale and quantify their abundance. 

In practice, eDNA can help with natural resource management, proving helpful for detecting hard-to-find and endangered species as well as detecting invasive species. It also can help managers determine whether restoration activities were successful by reflecting growing biodiversity or the prevalence of diseases in a system. And NOAA, for example, has begun working to include eDNA surveys into fisheries stock assessments, marking the technique’s rise as a policy-ready tool.

But researchers say there’s even more potential for eDNA. One of the conference goals is to advance eDNA science broadly, thinking about how to leverage and build new collaborations to meet research and management needs. 

“When we get everyone together, we can understand where the science is pushing boundaries, and where the most pressing research needs are,” said Hirsch. “That conversation is ongoing in journals and other places, but there’s nothing better than having that happen in real time, and to be able to innovate in real time.” 

Part of what’s driving the growth in eDNA research and its applications is new accessibility to vast amounts of information. In just a scoop of water, researchers can now extract data in a fairly straightforward process. What used to require in-house expertise can now be outsourced to service providers. Making sense of the data once it comes back is where the challenge lies. 

“The possibilities are endless, but it can be extremely daunting,” Kelly said. “How do we effectively sample the thing we’re trying to understand and then work backwards to get the answers we want?”

Hirsch and Kelly’s interest in eDNA is different but complementary. Kelly is an ecologist and Hirsch is a social scientist, and both — along with their collaborators — have high hopes for the event. They are seeing early energy and excitement among their colleagues around the world. 

“We expected to maybe get 100 people to submit abstracts, and instead we got 300 — so there’s no shortage of people wanting to bring information and talk to each other,” said Kelly. “Now we’re expecting between 400 and 500 people, along with exhibitors, vendors and others. So we really have a critical mass similar to other professional conferences.”

Session planning is underway, organized around interests and goals, on topics such as monitoring endangered and invasive species, tool and sampling development and improving fishery stock assessments. One session focuses on Indigenous data sovereignty and monitoring resources related to tribal lands. The conference will be truly interdisciplinary, with participants bringing with them different perspectives on the environment.

Hirsch and Kelly hope this field continues to grow, and that the conference can catalyze new projects and connections. 

“I’m really hopeful that a culture of collaboration continues to grow,” Hirsch said. “I think this is already a very collaborative field, so I’m confident that this conference will help keep up the momentum.”