Kaş-Kekova DEKA'da balık biyoçeşitliliğini değerlendırmede çevresel DNA metabarkodlama ve su altı görsel sayımın karşılaştırılması

The impacts of anthropological activities are one of the major causes leading to biodiversity loss. Marine biodiversity, especially fish, suffers from human activities the most through overexploitation, pollution, and habitat loss and fragmentation; therefore, Marine Protected Areas play a significant role in protecting and conserving marine biodiversity and habitat. However, biomonitoring of species diversity in such areas is usually dependent on conventional surveys, which can be costly, invasive, require taxonomic expertise, and are potentially prone to subjectivity and error. As an alternative to traditional surveys, eDNA metabarcoding can be utilized to assess and monitor diversity in biodiversity spots. In this study, 21 seawater samples were collected in a marine protected area (Kaş-Kekova) in Antalya, Turkey, from three different sampling depths (surface, 12m, and 24m) in 16 stations. Two sets of universal primers targeting COI and 12S rRNA markers were used in the eDNA metabarcoding. This study aimed to assess the fish biodiversity in Kaş-Kekova MPA by eDNA metabarcoding and compare it with the simultaneous underwater visual census (UVC) findings and whether eDNA metabarcoding cross-validates the fish biodiversity recorded in the area and to detect the presence of any invasive or elusive species where the conventional methods might fall short of their detection. The results of the analyses demonstrated that the two methods were complementary to each other and with better sampling effort, utilizing eDNA metabarcoding could be promising in terms of species diversity assessment and forewarning the possible invasive species.