In July some of the Friends took part in the Natural History Museum’s GenePools project.
This project is a collaboration between Natural England, the Natural History Museum, Cefas, and citizen scientists from Manchester, Cambridge, Plymouth, Newcastle, Bristol and London. GenePools was designed to trial combining cutting edge DNA technology with citizen science, to collect a large dataset showing biodiversity within urban ponds.
The project investigates the hidden and invisible life within ponds in urban areas. We carried out surveys of the Ecology and Art Pavilion ponds, collected and “worked up” samples of the pond water and then sent it off to have the eDNA (environmental-DNA) extracted and partially sequenced. These partial sequences (known as sequence or DNA barcodes) are then run through a number of online databases to identify the organisms present. The online databases are constantly being updated and in time some of the currently unknown species in our samples will be identified.
So what did our eDNA reveal?
In the [lower] Art Pavilion pond which found eDNA from the common frog, smooth newt, pigeon, mosquito, amoeba, elder, ash, geranium, duckweed, nettle were found alongside “human” and “dog“! But although they were quite literally staring us in the face, so far at least, we haven’t had results back for the herons, swans, rats or terrapins. Let’s see what further database updates reveal.
eDNA from the northern-most Eco Pavilion pond did show coot, moorhen, mallard, swan or goose, european perch, roach, goldfish, diving and scarab beetles, a large range of trees (including cherry, lime, willow, beech, hornbeam, alder and black locust tree).
Alongside the animals, plants and insects the data lists hundreds of species of green and golden algae, ciliate protists, diatoms, and flagellates to name but a few.
You can take a look at the data from our ponds on the Genepools website.
It is displayed in “Sunburst Charts” with the size of the segments being proportional to the number of species identified in a particular taxonomic group. For example, a larger invertebrate segment means that more invertebrates species were identified in our pond relative to other taxonomic groups. Click on a segment to zoom in on a taxon group. To zoom out one level click on the middle segment of the chart. To find our data go to the GenePools website and select our pond ID from the dropdown list near the TOP LEFT. The Art Pavilion pond is GPII280; and the Eco Pavilion ponds GPII274 (the most northern one) and GPII125 (nearest the Palm Tree). Watch out for the hairybellies!
Are our ponds healthy?
The eDNA results show our ponds contain a large number of species, particularly microbes and invertebrates, which may serve as as food for larger species such as birds and bats. A small number of species don’t seem to dominate, and the nitrate and phosphate levels (which were measured as part of the study) look good.
But eDNA isn’t everything. Although the eDNA analysis didn’t show it, we know our ponds contain some non-native invasive species such as the terrapins and New Zealand pigmyweed. These can cause havoc as they don’t have to compete with their natural enemies from back home. Hopefully the eDNA databases will start to include these and other invasive species. In the meantime the Friends will see if there is anything that can be done to keep the non-native species in check.
