0000000000070985
AUTHOR
Emanuela Reo
Assessing the effect of chromium pollution on benthic foraminiferal community: morphological vs. environmental metabarcoding approaches
The purpose of this experimental study is to assess the impact of different concentrations of chromium (Cr) through time on the diversity of cultured benthic foraminifera combining two morphological approaches for the identification of living specimens that are Rose Bengal (RB) staining and CellTracker Green (CTG) labelling as well as environmental DNA and RNA metabarcoding. Seven tanks/aquaria with different concentrations of Cr in water, namely 100 ppt, 1 ppb, 10 ppb, 100 ppb, 1 ppm and 10 ppm plus the control were used. A mesocosm was extracted from each tank at pre-established time (1 week, 2 weeks, 4 weeks 6 weeks and 8 weeks). Morphological analyses produced 6 datasets based on staini…
Environmental RNA outperforms eDNA metabarcoding in assessing impact of marine pollution: A chromium-spiked mesocosm test
Environmental (e)DNA metabarcoding holds great promise for biomonitoring and ecotoxicological applications. However, few studies have compared the performance of eDNA versus eRNA metabarcoding in assessing organismal response to marine pollution, in experimental conditions. Here, we performed a chromium (Cr)-spiked mesocosm experimental test on benthic foraminiferal community to investigate the effects on species diversity by analysing both eDNA and eRNA metabarcoding data across different Cr concentrations in the sediment. Foraminiferal diversity in the eRNA data showed a significant negative correlation with the Cr concentration in the sediment, while a positive response was observed in t…
Assessing the effect of mercury pollution on cultured benthic foraminifera community using morphological and eDNA metabarcoding approaches
Mercury (Hg) is a highly toxic element for living organisms and is known to bioaccumulate and biomagnify. Here, we analyze the response of benthic foraminifera communities cultured in mesocosm and exposed to different concentrations of Hg. Standard morphological analyses and environmental DNA metabarcoding show evidence that Hg pollution has detrimental effects on benthic foraminifera. The molecular analysis provides a more complete view of foraminiferal communities including the soft-walled single-chambered monothalamiids and small-sized hard-shelled rotaliids and textulariids than the morphological one. Among these taxa that are typically overlooked in morphological studies we found poten…