An Overview and Guide to Environmental DNA Protocols and Workflows
Orianne Tournayre1, Haolun (Allen) Tian2, Stafford “Rotehrá:kwas” Maracle2, David R. Lougheed3 and Stephen C. Lougheed2
Department of Biology, York University, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Department of Biology, Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada
Canadian Centre for Computational Genomics, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Originally prepared for the Queen’s University Biological Station environmental DNA workshop
CC-BY-4.0 Creative Commons License 2022-2025
This has been a ‘living document’ that we have continued to edit & update each year and will continue to do so.
How to cite this document: Tournayre, O. Tian, H., Maracle, S. R., Lougheed, D. R., & Lougheed, S. C. (2025). An overview and guide to environmental DNA protocols and workflows. Version 2.3.0. Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.13421371
Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Purpose of this document
- Some useful resources
- The use of DNA to identify species
- Overview of environmental DNA
- The use of environmental DNA for wildlife monitoring
- Overview of the methods: eDNA single-species detection
- Overview of eDNA multi-species detection methods
- From study design to data
- Read processing - Bioinformatics (metabarcoding only)
- Refining the snapshot using environmental RNA
- Useful Protocols and Equipment
- Glossary
- References