Presenter: Danyon Gedris
Authors: Danyon Gedris
Faculty Advisor: Paul Frandsen
Institution: Brigham Young University
Over time, the importance of biomonitoring natural ecosystems and animal population has increased as climate change, human infrastructure development and habitat fragmentation have threatened the natural life cycle of these animals. Current methods to monitor biodiversity can be costly and take a lot of time. In order to find the optimal method of biomonitoring, traditional morphological identification, eDNA water sampling, bulk sampling of picked insects, and bulk sampling without picking will be performed. Each method will then be tested to prove the presence or absence of specific macroinvertebrates and the alpha and beta diversity of insect populations through morphological identification and metabarcoding DNA extraction methods. All tests will then be compared. By finding the optimal method, future studies currently being performed in Dr. Frandsen's lab will be able to refine and use the optimal method for cost efficiency and DNA accuracy.