Melania E. Cristescu

eDNA provides accurate population abundance estimates with bioenergetics and particle mass-balance modelling

This study develops a model integrating bioenergetics and mass-balance to estimate freshwater fish abundance from eDNA, improving accuracy and detecting population changes.

A strong relationship between environmental DNA metabarcoding and rank-based abundance of fish

The paper examines the relationship between environmental DNA metabarcoding read counts and rank abundance of fish species in lakes, finding a strong correlation and a negative effect of body mass on eDNA sequence abundance.

Contrasted effects of human pressure on biodiversity in the UK: a multi-taxonomic assessment using airborne environmental DNA

The paper assesses the impact of human pressure on biodiversity in the UK using airborne environmental DNA, revealing complex patterns in diversity and community composition across taxa.

First national survey of terrestrial biodiversity using airborne eDNA

This study conducts the first national terrestrial biodiversity survey using airborne eDNA, identifying over 1,100 taxa and showing its potential to complement citizen science for conservation.

Pre-exposure to stress reduces loss of community and genetic diversity following severe environmental disturbance

The paper shows that pre-exposure to stress increases community and genetic diversity resilience in bacterial communities under severe acidification.

Assessment of current taxonomic assignment strategies for metabarcoding eukaryotes

This study evaluates seven taxonomic assignment methods for metabarcoding eukaryotes using mock communities, finding that BLAST top hit performs competitively when optimized and that reference database quality impacts accuracy.

A2G2: A Python wrapper to perform very largealignments in semi-conserved regions

A2G2 improves alignment accuracy for large sequence sets in conserved regions using MAFFT and a reference-based strategy.

Highly accelerated rates of heritable large-scale mutations under prolonged exposure to a metal mixture of copper and nickel

The paper estimates mutation rates in Daphnia pulex exposed to copper and nickel mixtures, finding accelerated rates of deletions and duplications under environmental stress.