Publications by authors named "Sally Reader"
Article Synopsis
- Fishes in Sydney Harbour are an important natural resource, yet their diversity and role in this human-impacted estuary have not been well documented until now.
- A recent study found that the number of fish species in Sydney Harbour increased from 586 in 2013 to 675, largely due to citizen science contributions and the presence of more tropical species thriving in warmer waters.
- The study highlights the need for ongoing collaboration between citizen science initiatives and natural history collections to monitor and assess the environmental impacts on fish populations.
Environmental DNA (eDNA) metabarcoding is increasingly being used to assess community composition in coastal ecosystems. In this study, we chose to examine temporal and spatial changes in the aquatic community of Manly Lagoon - one of the most heavily developed and polluted estuaries in eastern Australia. Based on metabarcoding of the 16S mitochondrial gene (for fish) and the 18S nuclear gene (for macroinvertebrates), we identified seasonal differences in fish and macroinvertebrate community composition as well as species richness, which correlated, in some cases, with the environmental parameters of sea surface temperature and freshwater input.
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