Environmental DNA degradation simulation from water temperature and DNA fragment length: A meta-analysis approach

Environmental DNA (eDNA) analysis can detect aquatic organisms, including rare and endangered species, in a variety of habitats. The degradation of eDNA concentration is important to investigate their distribution and has also been experimentally evaluated. It is important to integrate these data to synthesize eDNA degradation in various environments. We collected the eDNA degradation rates and related factors, especially water temperature and fragment lengths of the measured DNA from 28 studies. Our results suggest that water temperature and fragment length are significantly related to the eDNA degradation rate. From the 95% quantile model simulation, we predicted the maximum eDNA degradation rate in various combinations of water temperature and fragment length. Predicting eDNA degradation could be important for evaluating species distribution and inducing innovation of eDNA methods, especially for rare and endangered species with lower DNA concentrations.