eDNA - an introduction into methods, state of the art, and prospects for alpine waters

Genetic traces, which were left by organisms in their environment, are called eDNA. They can be found in water bodies, soil, and even the air. It is a rather recent scientific branch which takes advantage of these traces to search for certain species or define biotas. The determination of species is done by extracting the DNA from the respective media and sequencing it. These sequences are compared to sequence databases and species assignment is done by matching of sample sequences with reference sequences. For the alpine area this method opens a wide variety of usages, as there are e.g. species inventories, control of stocking measures, or monitoring of neozoa introgression.