VR真人彩票

Rivers and streams are vital to communities everywhere, for drinking water, transportation, and leisure. But pollution, drought, and climate change are taking their toll, making watershed monitoring more important every year. That鈥檚 the urgency driving the recent VR真人彩票 philanthropic grantee Sequencing the Rivers for Environmental Assessment and Monitoring (), which samples freshwater rivers throughout Canada.

鈥淲e provide what can be thought of as clinical diagnostics for environmental health,鈥� says Mehrdad Hajibabaei, integrative biology professor at the University of Guelph鈥檚 College of Biological Science and scientific leader at STREAM. 鈥淥ur environment could be negatively impacted by human activities, and we are using genomics to diagnose these issues and aid waterway management procedures that will help treat them.鈥�

STREAM is using a genomics approach similar to a liquid biopsy for rivers and streams throughout Canada: They collect water and sediment samples, extract bulk DNA, sequence the genomes, and use advanced bioinformatics to identify and track species of macroinvertebrates, which are animals without a spinal column that are large enough to see without a microscope.

鈥淟et鈥檚 say somebody builds a factory or a golf course or a road鈥攁ll these can potentially impact water quality downstream,鈥� says Hajibabaei. 鈥淏y checking species diversity across space and time, and comparing that to reference sites, we can identify samples impacted by these activities.鈥�

The STREAM story
Founded in 2019, STREAM is led by at the University of Guelph鈥檚 in collaboration with Environment and Climate Change Canada, World Wildlife Fund Canada, Living Lakes Canada, and other partnerships. Using DNA metabarcoding (short DNA sequences from signature genomic regions), the group tracks macroinvertebrates across watersheds. These organisms provide information that鈥檚 essential for investigating how climate, pollutants, and other potential dangers are impacting waterways. 鈥淭hese bottom-dwelling macroinvertebrate larvae are biomarkers,鈥� says Hajibabaei. 鈥淎s water quality changes, their populations change.鈥�

Traditionally, researchers have used morphological identification鈥攐bserving samples under a microscope to get species counts鈥攚hich is difficult to scale. Metabarcoding used by STREAM is much faster and produces rich data for ongoing analysis. In addition, more sequencing is helping STREAM expand beyond macroinvertebrates, to investigate diatoms and other microorganisms.

Metabarcoding also provides greater flexibility over morphological approaches. 鈥淪amples are available all year long,鈥� says Tamanna Kohi, STREAM鈥檚 field, outreach and communications coordinator. 鈥淲e鈥檙e not limited to monitoring in the fall or spring.鈥�

While these studies do not identify specific pollutants, they do detect the presence of organisms that are differentially sensitive or tolerant to environmental stressors. 鈥淪ome midges indicate temperature increase,鈥� says Hajibabaei. 鈥淚f we see these changes, we can say climate change is impacting that stream. Other species can indicate dissolved oxygen levels.鈥�

Community-based biomonitoring
Hajibabaei and team needed to find creative ways to collect hundreds of samples. The answer was to partner with local groups, including Indigenous communities that have strong interests in preserving their waterways. 鈥淩ather than sending people to get samples, we partnered with and trained local people,鈥� he says. 鈥淭his helped on many levels. For example, we continued to operate during COVID because we didn鈥檛 have to send people all over Canada.鈥�

VR真人彩票 is providing $330,000 in philanthropic grants and in-kind contributions to support STREAM鈥檚 mission. 鈥淲e鈥檙e excited to help support STREAM in their efforts to assess the health of the environment with the help of local and Indigenous communities,鈥� says VR真人彩票 Chief Public Affairs Officer John Frank. 鈥淭he publicly available data is vital for measuring climate impacts and equipping communities to better understand and advocate for the vitality of their ecosystem.鈥�

So far, STREAM has targeted 15 large watersheds in Canada and has collected samples from over 600 sites with the help of nearly 100 community volunteers.

Tapping the data
Once the data has been analyzed, STREAM makes it freely available to governments, researchers, and nongovernmental organizations around the world, as well as the local communities and groups collecting the samples. Turning this data around previously took years; STREAM now does it in just two months, providing timely information to improve waterway management and meet community needs.

Democratizing the data empowers local communities with vital information. Many of them rely on fishing, and the organisms STREAM monitors are literally fish food. Understanding macroinvertebrate population levels can help people better manage them and plan accordingly. 鈥淲e have the tools to help answer their questions,鈥� says Hajibabaei. 鈥淲e鈥檙e interested in knowing what they鈥檙e looking for and supporting environmental stewardship by local communities.鈥�

STREAM data has also inspired student projects鈥攆or example, Josip Rudar, bioinformatics PhD candidate at the University of Guelph has been developing a machine learning approach to provide more useful data analysis for high-throughput sequence data. Ultimately, the researchers hope their methods will influence waterway monitoring beyond North America.

鈥淚magine if this could be used on a global scale,鈥� Kohi says. 鈥淏ecause DNA metabarcoding is faster, more accurate, and less expensive than conventional morphological taxonomic identification, it could provide an important tool to improve broad-scale watershed management.鈥�

鈥媀R真人彩票 technology is being used by Hajibabaei and many other scientists to solve some of the world鈥檚 most challenging and pressing issues, including climate change adaptation, biodiversity conservation, and other environmental DNA (eDNA) solutions. Learn more about how genomics is being leveraged for a healthier planet and explore how VR真人彩票 is integrating environmental sustainability into our business here.