Directions

This page contains information and useful links to help you get the most out of your eDNA samples. Whether you are an experienced eDNA practitioner or about to take your first sample, there are some useful tips and tricks to maximise the number of creatures captured on your filter. Here are some key pointers before you get started:

• Stay safe when working in the water! Strong currents and slippery rocks can lead to accidents, and the only time we want to read about you in the paper is if a Fiordland Moose or South Island Kōkako turns up in your sample.

• Avoid sampling after heavy rain. We generally see the best eDNA results when water levels are at their lowest. Excess rainfall can flush eDNA out of the system and dilute the signal of target organisms.

• Take care when handling the small preservative syringe. This solution is classified as an irritant, so always wear nitrile gloves (included in the kit) and safety glasses. You can find the safety data sheet here.

• Replicate. A single eDNA sample can tell you a bit about what is living nearby, but DNA can be patchy in the water so one sample can often miss things. We generally recommend taking six replicate samples for most routine biomonitoring applications.

• Read up on the instructions before you head out in the field. To make things easier, we have prepared some instructional videos for you below.

You can also view these considerations and reminders in our please read document here.

Our syringe samplers are a manual filtration-based kit which are compact, light weight, and quick-and-easy to use making them a staple item in the eDNA practitioner’s tool kit. Using a large barrel syringe, water gets pushed through a combination of filters to capture eDNA material from a liter of water.

We have two types of syringe samplers available which differ only in the filter used:

1. Standard kit

• 1.2 µm filter

• Ideal for most freshwater systems with low to moderate turbidity (e.g., rivers, streams, and lakes with clear or slightly murky water) and marine environments.

• This kit works best when filtering up to 1L of water without clogging.

2. Turbid water kit

• 5.0 µm filter

• For high-turbidity environments such as wetlands, lakes with suspended algae, or other water bodies with lots of organic matter. The larger pore size makes it easier to filter water without clogging, especially when water conditions are murkier.

• This kit is also recommended for specimen samples that tend to have a high DNA load.

As a general rule of thumb, we recommend switching to turbid kits at sites where it is not possible to filter 500 mL through a standard 1.2 µm filter. Contact us to order some extra 5.0 µm filters for use in unexpected turbid situations, or if you are unsure about the conditions you will be sampling.

Below are instructions and tips-and-tricks to help you take a robust eDNA sample!

The key things to remember when sampling with the syringe kit are:

• Avoid chances of contamination (e.g. from waders, equipment, pets, chicken sandwiches, etc) by always wearing the provided gloves when handling the filter and standing downstream from where you are taking your sample.

• Avoid sucking up large clumps of organic material (ie. leaves and algae) or sediment as this can prematurely clog up your filter.

• When preserving and packaging your sample, remember to leave the small preservative syringe and black cap attached to the filter before packing it up, or your precious sample could leak out into the sample bag!

• Finally don’t forget to submit your samples online before sending to prevent processing delays.

Find our detailed instruction sheet for this kit here in both English and Te Reo Māori.

Replication

Replication is an important aspect of any robust survey. After a large intercouncil eDNA trial carried out over the Summer 2020/2021 period, managers collectively agreed that 6 replicate syringe samples provided the optimal species detection rates and should therefore be used as best practice for characterising local riverine communities (read more about this trial here). This sampling protocol is now in wide use throughout Aotearoa.

Our passive samplers have been undergoing thorough validation and trials over the past year, and we are happy to now offer two deployment options to the eDNA biomonitoring toolbox.

Passive samplers get deployed in flowing water environments for 24-hours, so require two visits to a site to collect your sample. These samplers are designed to capture a larger window of biological activity, making them more suited for detecting terrestrial species such as birds and mammals.

Below are instructional videos for both types of our passive samplers, along with some key considerations for when to use which method.

Peg-mount passive sampler

The peg-mount passive sampler is a single use, compact kit, and is best suited for sampling smaller streams and wadeable rivers.

The key things to remember when sampling with the peg-mount passive sampler are:

• Deploy the sampler in an area of moderate to high flow to maximise the amount of water filtered throughout its deployment. We recommend they are deployed at least 5cms below the water surface to ensure it remains submerged for the full deployment.

• Remember to mark your site (eg. with flagging tape) to make sure you’ll be able to locate the sampler when retrieving it the next day.

• When preserving and packaging your sample, remember to screw the sample jar on tight and shake well to ensure that the preservative gets well dispersed throughout the filter.

• Finally don’t forget to submit your samples online before sending your samples back to our lab to prevent processing delays.

Find our detailed instruction sheet for this kit here in both English and Te Reo Māori!

Manifold-mount passive sampler

The manifold-mount passive sampler is best suited for higher replicate sampling and can be used in both wadable and non-wadable rivers. The manifold-mount is designed to be reusable and can house up to six replicate filter pods.

To deploy the manifold, you will need to bring a waratah and hammer into the field.

Some key things to remember when sampling with the manifold-mount passive sampler are:

• Deploy the sampler in an area of moderate to high flow to maximise the amount of water filtered throughout its deployment. We recommend they are deployed at least 5cms below the water surface to ensure it remains submerged for the full 24 hour deployment.

• We recommend leaving the manifold set-up in flowing water for approximately 5 minutes before inserting the filter pods to reduce the chance of cross contamination from handling and any previous sampling events.

• When retrieving the filter pods at the end of their deployment, remove, preserve and label one sample at a time.

• When preserving and packaging your sample, remember to screw the sample jars on tight and shake well to ensure that the preservative gets well dispersed throughout the filters.

• Finally don’t forget to submit your samples online before sending your samples back to our lab to prevent processing delays.

Find our detailed instruction sheet for this kit here in both English and Te Reo Māori!

Since we have been processing an increasing number of specimen samples recently, we have conducted some internal validation experiments and now offer a supplementary pack for specimen sampling. The supplementary pack can be used in conjunction with our turbid water eDNA syringe kit and is designed to enable the genetic sequencing of biological samples such as plant and animal specimens, scats, and animal stomach contents.

Specimen sampling can be used for a wide variety of research applications, such as identifying unknown species or interrogating diet composition. It can also facilitate the reference barcoding of known specimen material, contributing to the expansion of genetic databases. 

The sampling method shown in the instructional video below standardises the quantity of biological material to a suitable amount for barcoding. You can also find our detailed instruction sheet here.

Contact us to order specimen sampling packs, or if you’d like any further guidance on the sampling method.

Our metabarcoding analysis panels have been developed to provide high taxonomic resolution and broad ecosystem insights, maximising both precision and value. These panels can be used to analyse samples collected using any of our eDNA sampling kits.

Basic panel

$160 NZD per sample (excluding GST and sampling kit)

Our basic analysis panel includes four metabarcoding assays targeting fish, mammals, birds, reptiles, and amphibians. It is tailored to provide a low-cost snapshot of aquatic animal diversity, enabling detection of all native and introduced freshwater fish commonly targeted for stream condition assessments. The basic vertebrate panel also detects terrestrial species, making it suitable for animal specimen identification and diet analysis.

Comprehensive panel

$270 NZD per sample (excluding GST and sampling kit)

Our comprehensive panel provides an expansive approach to biological monitoring, encompassing species across the tree of life. It offers all the coverage of the basic analysis panel with eight additional assays included for detecting land and aquatic plants, algae, zooplankton, microorganisms, and the invasive Corbicula golden clam. For New Zealand river and stream samples, this panel also includes the taxon-independent community index (TICI) which is a new and powerful way to track aquatic ecological health.

If you have any specific questions about our metabarcoding panels, lab methods or key species of interest, please don’t hesitate to reach out to our team at info@wilderlab.co.nz.

After you’ve taken your samples, we require you to submit your samples for analysis using our online sample submission portal. This process ties your samples to your contact information using their UID (Unique Identifier) or Kit number. This number is comprised of either five (6-rep kits) or six digits (single replicate kits ), and can be found on the back of your sample bag, as can be seen in the photo below.

In the submission portal, you can specify whether the sample analysis has been paid for already, and which type of analysis you want for your samples. It also lets us know to expect your sample soon, holding a place for it in our laboratory workflow.

In the sample table, you can fill out the sample information for each one of your samples. This includes all the details you noted down in the field on the back of your sample bag. The additional sample information your include beyond the UID number is for your own records, and can be useful for when you are later interpreting and reporting on your results. The inclusion of your sample coordinates in WGS84 format allows your sample to be explored as a point on our online eDNA map either behind password protection or publicly visible depending on your choice.

An alternative to manually filling out the sample table when submitting your samples is to upload a file with the required information via our new sample manifest option. To do this, first select ‘Upload file’. You will then be able to download a template, fill out your information in the spreadsheet, and finally upload it into the sample submission. Please note that after downloading the template, do not change the column headers. These must match the template otherwise the upload will not work.

Once your file is successfully uploaded, the information from the file will automatically populate the manifest on the submit samples page. This will allow you to have a quick look over the information once more to ensure everything is correct and make changes if necessary.

After you hit ‘submit’ on the sample submission form, the sample UIDs that you lodged will now be attached to an automatically generated Job ID. Additionally, a Chain of Custody (CoC) form for this job will be emailed to the email address you entered. Please print and sign this CoC form and send it along with your samples to our lab.

If you want to contact us about your samples at any point in time, either your UID(s) or the job number will be easiest to refer to for us to quickly identify your samples.

An important additional part of the above submission process will be receiving a Manufacturers Declaration form. This form needs to be attached to the outside of your sample package before they are sent to our lab in New Zealand. Without this form, the shipment will not pass through customs smoothly.

On the online submission form, there is a section to select which country you are sending your samples in from. This is important as it helps our team to give you the right information in accordance with different import regulations. Please email our team at info@wilderlab.co.nz to receive the necessary manufacturers declaration form and any additional instructions.

The interpretation and communication of eDNA data is very important, and this will look different to different people depending on the questions you are looking to ask of the dataset.

We are currently developing more guidance and resources to support robust methods of communicating eDNA results, and we expect this section to continue to grow as we can share new approaches.

Find our latest guide to eDNA data interpretation here.

A Wheel of Life is a colourful and engaging way to help you visualise and communicate the breadth of your eDNA results.

For samples processed with Wilderlab’s comprehensive assay panel, you can now create your own Wheel of Life diagrams using Wilderlab’s new Shiny Wheel app.

You can find instructions on how you can design your own Wheel of Life here.

© Wilderlab NZ Ltd. 2021