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Marine eDNA Dude @marinednadude.bsky.social · 1h

The strangest part was that it felt like diving in the dentist’s office aquarium. Surreal to be so familiar with tiny brightly colored fish on the nearly opposite side of the planet, especially ones that I associate with the taste of fluoride and pain

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Marine eDNA Dude @marinednadude.bsky.social · 1h

Got to hang out with the greatest recent adaptive radiation of vertebrates on earth. All hail the mbuna - Malawi cichlids

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Reposted by Marine eDNA Dude

David Ho @davidho.bsky.social · 1d

Current mood

A cartoon depicts a man and a woman walking side by side on a street. The woman wears a stylish dress and holds a purse, while the man is in a suit. The caption reads, "My desire to be well-informed is currently at odds with my desire to remain sane.”

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Marine eDNA Dude @marinednadude.bsky.social · 1d

Great & Pied Kkngfishers in Malawi

Cichlids beware

Great kingfisher flying over Chelinda lake

Pier kingfisher with an upside down cichlid in its mouth

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Reposted by Marine eDNA Dude

Garrett M. Graff @vermontgmg.bsky.social · 3d

You know what was weird last week? I didn’t see anyone fired for quoting words actually spoken by Jane Goodall.

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Reposted by Marine eDNA Dude

Rebecca R Helm @rebeccarhelm.bsky.social · 14d

I get that the news cycle is packed right now, but I just heard from a colleague at the Smithsonian that this is fully a GIANT SQUID BEING EATEN BY A SPERM WHALE and it’s possibly the first ever confirmed video according to a friend at NOAA

10 YEAR OLD ME IS LOSING HER MIND (a thread 🧵)

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Marine eDNA Dude @marinednadude.bsky.social · 14d

Just another day in the office moving liquids from one bag to another.

Small step towards our first mooring deployment - proof of priming :)

(Food coloring is fun, please try this at home)

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Marine eDNA Dude @marinednadude.bsky.social · 15d

Having way too much fun with my first new camera in 11 years

Excited to bring this new camera for a long vacation to Malawi (more pics to come)

Dramatic Marmot with a big morning stretch

Mountain goat lounging in the alpine sun

My brown basenji dog papaya running at full speed being chased by my friend’s black dog Craig with his tongue sticking out

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Reposted by Marine eDNA Dude

Matthew A. Barnes @drbarnes.org · 16d

📣 New #eDNA Publication Alert! 📣 Knauss M, Barnes MA, Begum MZFA, Fokar M, and Lockwood SA. 2025. Assessing the performance of environmental DNA metabarcoding in fish diversity surveys of the Texas Gulf Coast. Estuaries and Coasts 48: 177.

doi.org/10.1007/s122...

Assessing the Performance of Environmental DNA Metabarcoding in Fish Diversity Surveys of the Texas Gulf Coast - Estuaries and Coasts

As natural and anthropogenic disturbances to coastal ecosystems increase in frequency and intensity, the need for efficient and cost-effective biodiversity survey methods also rises. We evaluated the ...

doi.org

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Marine eDNA Dude @marinednadude.bsky.social · 15d

Every primer is functionally a different net/survey. We routinely get microbes (16Sv4), phytoplankton (18sv9/18sv4), zooplankton (CO1), and fish (12S) from the same 1 L samples

Also matters how well your assay is calibrated to your targets. Reference database completeness is half the game!

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Marine eDNA Dude @marinednadude.bsky.social · 15d

A lot of eDNA work is qPCR or ddPCR based onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

There’s also a lot of work trying to get at quantitative metabarcoding approaches (hard, doable-ish, active area of research) doi.org/10.1002/ecy....

Toward quantitative metabarcoding

Amplicon-sequence data from environmental DNA (eDNA) and microbiome studies provide important information for ecology, conservation, management, and health. At present, amplicon-sequencing studies—kn...

doi.org

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Marine eDNA Dude @marinednadude.bsky.social · 15d

Here’s a few similar type studies where we get really nice overlap with visual surveys in SoCal

journals.plos.org/plosone/arti...

peerj.com/articles/140...

Ole Shelton says it best: eDNA is just a different type of net. It has its own biases and advantages. It’s cost effective & sensitive

A comparison of biomonitoring methodologies for surf zone fish communities

Surf zones are highly dynamic marine ecosystems that are subject to increasing anthropogenic and climatic pressures, posing multiple challenges for biomonitoring. Traditional methods such as seines an...

journals.plos.org

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Marine eDNA Dude @marinednadude.bsky.social · 15d

Another successful field season made possible by large research vessels!

4 cruises and >600 eDNA samples samples in freezer

Hats off to all the technicians, crew, and PIs that made it possible to get key long term ocean observations

www.pmel.noaa.gov/ocean-molecu...

Where ocean science sets sail: The power of large research vessels | Ocean Molecular Ecology

www.pmel.noaa.gov

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Marine eDNA Dude @marinednadude.bsky.social · 16d

Honesty is the best policy. It is hard. No need to sugar coat it.

I also remind people that you can do /use science anywhere- it just might not be the kind that you ultimately want to do one day. And to encourage folks that it’s ok to come back to science. if possible a job w/transferable skills

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Reposted by Marine eDNA Dude

Ocean Acidification Research Center @uaf-oarc-alaska.bsky.social · 16d

Experience career pathway options available in Alaska’s maritime industry! Mariculture, research, ship building and repair, fishing, piloting Alaska’s ferries, and more! 🧪🌊

Open to all students in grades 8-12, welcoming both T3 Alaska participants and non-members.

t3.alaska.edu/maritime/

Flyer for T3 Maritime Career Awareness Project.

Students will explore maritime technologies, develop a growth mindset, and connect with community members to discover career opportunities in the maritime field. Events are open to the public—don’t miss out!

T3 (Teaching Through Technology) Alaska program is founded on three pillars: Growth Mindset, Technology Skills, and Community Engagement

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Reposted by Marine eDNA Dude

Eliza_coli @eliza-coli.bsky.social · 17d

Microbial dark matter! Can't see it, can't grow it, but we know it's there... This is some branding illustration I did for the microbial dark matter symposium this year. Thanks @katrinewhiteson.bsky.social and @zymoresearch.bsky.social for the fun commission!
#microbes #ecoevo
🧪🐡🧫

Monoprint of microbes by @eliza_coli. A crowd of tightly packed bacteria, viruses and fungi, in white, swirl over a dark blue green splashy background. It looks like they are swirling down into the depths of the sea or far away in space.

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Marine eDNA Dude @marinednadude.bsky.social · 16d

And I can’t help shake that visibility in SoCal when diving is worse because of this….

Eutrophication driven pea soup

(And HABs, phytoplankton community shifts, etc.)

Photograph of kelp surrounded by productive pea soup Southern California waters

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Marine eDNA Dude @marinednadude.bsky.social · 16d

This paper and its findings live rent free in my head.

Enormous biogeochemical shifts in Southern California from human nitrogen pollution on the scale of upwelling.

Building a 25 year time series of zooplankton to understand the biological impacts.

www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

PNAS

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), a peer reviewed journal of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) - an authoritative source of high-impact, original research that broadly spans...

www.pnas.org

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Reposted by Marine eDNA Dude

TeamFoldscope @teamfoldscope.bsky.social · 19d

🔬 Free microscopes + teacher training!

📅 Applications are now open. To apply, visit www.foldscope.com or scan the QR code (video)

✉️ Any questions? Email us at [email protected]

#stem #education #science #teachers #training #free #microscopy #educators #professionaldevelopment #microscope

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Marine eDNA Dude @marinednadude.bsky.social · 20d

In before we lose freedom of speech:

Mola molas are rad

Mola Mola just under the surface of the ocean

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Reposted by Marine eDNA Dude

Megan Barkdull @meganbarkdull.bsky.social · 23d

Are you an undergraduate or graduate student whose research would benefit from visiting a collection at the @nhm.org? Apply now for our Collections Study Award! Deadline is Oct. 1; learn more at nhm.org/student-coll...

Flyer for the award. Has images of three students interacting with collections materials; text reads:

Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County
Student Collections Study Award
October 1st, 2025 Application Deadline
Application and Details:
https://nhm.org/student-collections-study-award

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Reposted by Marine eDNA Dude

Scripps Institution of Oceanography @scrippsocean.bsky.social · 21d

🔥 🌊 Were the #LAWildfires to blame for this year's record-breaking harmful algal blooms? Not necessarily, according to Southern California Coastal Ocean Observing System Director Clarissa Anderson. She explains more in this @latimes.com piece. ⬇️

Did L.A. wildfire debris worsen this year's toxic algal bloom? Researchers say it's unlikely

Toxic algae killed hundreds of marine mammals near L.A. in the last year. Scientists suspected January wildfire runoff may be to blame, but new research says no.

www.latimes.com

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Marine eDNA Dude @marinednadude.bsky.social · 21d

I continue to be impressed by the fantastic science coming out of NOAA and the application of biotechnology for enabling cheaper, better, and faster observations of fisheries, ecosystems, and everything in between!

Amazing how far we have innovated in the past decade observations 🐟🐠🧬🧬🧫

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Marine eDNA Dude @marinednadude.bsky.social · 21d

And a fantastic recent perspective piece on where #eDNA stands for fisheries management and the path forward to leveraging ‘Omics to enhance our stock assessments onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

The Pragmatic Sceptic: A Practical Approach for Integrating Environmental DNA Into Marine Stock Assessment and Fisheries Management

The ‘omics revolution’ has advanced scientific understanding of marine ecosystems and led to a rapid increase in data that can inform species' population structure, distribution, and abundance. Of th...

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

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Marine eDNA Dude @marinednadude.bsky.social · 21d

This stemmed from this Shelton et al. 2022 research paper that demonstrated the value of jointly modeling #eDNA alongside acoustics and trawls to reduce variance in stock biomass estimates royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/...

Environmental DNA provides quantitative estimates of Pacific hake abundance and distribution in the open ocean | Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences

All species inevitably leave genetic traces in their environments, and the resulting environmental DNA (eDNA) reflects the species present in a given habitat. It remains unclear whether eDNA signals c...

royalsocietypublishing.org

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