Insect Soup Helps Conservation Scientists
Metabarcoding is the process of identifying insect species from a single bulk sample — by that we mean a big mash up of insects. Recently researchers from the University of East Anglia in the United Kingdom found that metabarcoding was much quicker and just as reliable as using traditional, more labor-intensive means to compile standard biodiversity data sets of insects. Considering that traditional methods are done by taking samples from individual insects it’s no surprise metabarcoding was faster.
This newer method may not sound very appealing, but according to the new study analyzing “insect soup” appears to be the most efficient way to catalog biodiversity. And with a species as big as the insect family efficiency is a must.
Break out your magnifying glasses and microscopes – we’re about to dive into the science behind cataloging insects with metabarcoding.
Why is Cataloging Important in the First Place?
It may not seem like it most of the time, but insects are an essential component of our ecosystem. Bugs actually make up a much larger portion than you may think – they account for 80 percent of the world’s species. Insects help support the ecosystem by:
- Pollination
- Insect control (some species are just as good as professional exterminators)
- Wildlife nutrition
- Decomposing waste
A study from BioScienceMag.org found that in the U.S. alone the ecological services provided by insects were valued at around $57 billion annually. If we were to get rid of just one type of bug it could throw things way out of whack.
Before conservation scientist can understand how to protect insects so our ecosystem stays in balance they must first understand what is being lost and why insects are disappearing. This requires proper cataloging and tracking of insect species.
The Study of Using Metabarcoding to Create Insect Data Sets
With hundreds of thousands of species out there, and who knows how many that haven’t been discovered, creating databases of insects is no easy task. A team of conservation scientist at the University of East Anglia set out to find which method was the most accurate and efficient by pitting metabarcoding technology against three stands data sets that were compiled using traditional methods.
The data sets used for comparison in the research study came from three very diverse ecosystems: the U.K., China and Malaysia. The insect soup was comprised of 55,813 different species and took scientists 2,505 hours to analyze.
The metabarcoding used what’s referred to as insect soup, which is a basically a mass collection of different insects that have been crushed and mixed up together. The scientists then use DNA identification and DNA sequencing to make biodiversity assessments of what was in the soup.
Since every living thing has DNA which can be used to identify the species that produced the DNA scientists believed that metabarcoding would produce highly accurate results. And it did. On top of being just as accurate as the traditional methods for data set collection, metabarcoding was much quicker, can be verified by a third party and doesn’t rely so heavily on taxonomy experts.
In the end it was determined that metabarcoding can dramatically change biodiversity monitoring and conservation for the better. It will give scientist access to more information that can be updated and tracked more regularly, which enables them to make better decisions on how to manage biodiversity.
Original Source: https://www.vulcantermite.com/education-and-prevention/insect-soup-helps-conservation-scientists
Image Source: commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:DNA-Sequencers_from_Flickr_57080968.jpg