Speaker: Emily Brown
Abstract: Metabarcoding has become a popular tool for describing the composition of complex communities. However, concern has been raised over the accuracy of biodiversity estimates generated using this method. Whilst metabarcoding holds much promise, it comes with several technical considerations, including the value of singletons (sequences that occur only once within datasets) and the use of uniform divergence thresholds when generating operational taxonomic units (OTUs). Using a combination of mock and natural zooplanktons communities, we explore the potential for metabarcoding to be applied as a means to both describe native biodiversity and to detect aquatic invasive species. We highlight particular technical issues encountered and aim to provide advice to the metabarcoding community as to how these could be overcome.
This presentation was part of the Methods in Ecology and Evolution 5th Anniversary Symposium. To see other videos from the Symposium, please visit our website: bit.ly/1FRpIMV
