Sara Fernández

University of Oviedo | UNIOVI · Área de Genetica

The European eel Anguilla anguilla is a critically endangered catadromous species. There is an urgent need for close surveillance of the populations that are still viable in European rivers. The species is difficult to observe in freshwater because of its bottom-dwelling behavior; the currently employed methods of eel monitoring in Europe based on...

The movement of organisms facilitated by anthropogenic activities is a serious threat to marine diversity, especially for endemic species that may be outcompeted from non-indigenous species (NIS). In this study, we have analyzed communities inhabiting the north of the Gulf of Aqaba, Red Sea, employing environmental DNA (eDNA) metabarcoding. That gu...

River barriers affect river dynamics and aquatic biota, altering the entire ecosystem. Nevertheless, dams and reservoirs provide goods like water supply and low-carbon energy that are becoming increasingly critical under current climate change. To know to what extent dams and reservoirs are important to the population, we explored social attitudes...

Under current climate warming, dams and reservoirs are main options to ensure water supply in dry regions. However, the presence of these infrastructures encompasses impacts on ecosystem due to the alteration of connectivity and river habitat. We expect that as a result of the relation between water supply as a resource and the population will depe...

Anthropogenic litter is considered a potential vector for the dispersal of non-indigenous species (NIS) in marine ecosystems. Using the bay of Gijon (Southwestern Bay of Biscay) as a case study, we studied the composition and potential transfer of the communities inhabiting three different environment components: 1) natural and artificial substrate...

This document provides a series of protocols used to extract eDNA or eRNA from marine environmental samples such as small and large volume (filtered) water, sediment or (fine mesh net) plankton. Specifically, these protocols are recommended for use following sampling as described in Mirmin et al. (2021; Environmental DNA sampling protocols for the...

This document provides a series of protocols used to extract eDNA or eRNA from marine environmental samples such as small and large volume (filtered) water, sediment or (fine mesh net) plankton. Specifically, these protocols are recommended for use following sampling as described in Mirmin et al. (2021; Environmental DNA sampling protocols for the...

Understanding the spread and distribution of Non-Indigenous Species (NIS) is key when implementing legislation to maintain good ecosystem health. Environmental DNA (eDNA) has shown great potential to detect aquatic organisms in a rapid and cost-effective way, however their applicability to new environments must be validated prior to their implement...

This protocol is intended to provide guidelines on the curation and establishment of a specimen/tissue bank and associated DNA sequence data to be used as reference material/data for subsequent environmental DNA (eDNA) analysis, with particular emphasis on marine non-indigenous and invasive species.

This document describes a series of protocols for the collection of environmental samples intended for the monitoring and surveillance of marine invasive species by means of eDNA metabarcoding analysis, as described in the associated publication (Fernandez et al. 2021: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpolbul.2021.112893).

This document describes a series of protocols for the collection of environmental samples intended for the monitoring and surveillance of marine invasive species by means of eDNA metabarcoding analysis, as described in the associated publication (Fernandez et al. 2021: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpolbul.2021.112893).

The Dead Sea has a hypersaline environment where only extremophile species like Archaea, Bacteria, and fungi can survive. The Red Sea-Dead Sea Water Conveyance (RDSC) is constructing a pipeline of 180 km to import water from the Red Sea in the shrinking Dead Sea. Both seas exhibit highly different hydrographic features that determine their biodiver...

The social value of natural aquatic ecosystems is very important to set management priorities. River connectivity is essential for the conservation of freshwater ecosystems because barriers alter both abiotic conditions and the biotic communities, compromising biodiversity; however, the appreciation of this river feature has been insufficiently con...

Biological invasions are a global threat to biodiversity especially for aquatic resources. The distribution of alien species is associated with human activities; therefore, exotic species tend to accumulate near big urban areas through different invasion vectors such as ballast water, hull fouling, aquarium and pet releases. The Rhine River region...

Ships moving species across the oceans mix marine communities throughout latitudes. The introduction of new species may be changing the ecosystems even in remote islands. In tropical Pacific islands where maritime traffic is principally local, eDNA metabarcoding and barcoding revealed 75 introduced species, accounting in average for 28% of the comm...

In COVID-19 pandemics ordinary citizens are overwhelmed by the often contradictory information about transmission of SARS-CoV-2 through surfaces, especially outdoors. Citizen volunteers (N=39) and researchers, working together for the first time on SARS-CoV-2 detection, searched this virus’ RNA on outdoors urban furniture of Mieres (Asturias, Spain...

River fragmentation caused by instream barriers is a leading cause of biodiversity loss, particularly for freshwater migratory fish, the vertebrate group that has suffered the steepest decline. However, most studies have tended to focus on the impacts of large dams on only a few taxa. We estimated the cumulative impact of both large and small barri...

Zooplankton community inventories are the basis of fisheries management for containing fish larvae and their preys; however, the visual identification of early-stage larvae (the “missing biomass”) is difficult and laborious. Here, eDNA metabarcoding was employed to detect zooplankton species of interest for fisheries from open and coastal waters. H...

Invasive Alien Species (IAS) are one of the most contributing constituents of biodiversity loss with the distribution range of an increasing number of IAS being artificially re-shaped by human activities. Rapid and effective tools are therefore needed in order to monitor changes in biodiversity and the dispersal of IAS. Molecular tools such as envi...

Cabled observatories are marine infrastructures equipped with biogeochemical and oceanographic sensors as well as High-Definition video and audio equipment, hence providing unprecedented opportunities to study marine biotic and abiotic components. Additionally, non-invasive monitoring approaches such as environmental DNA (eDNA) metabarcoding have f...

Rivers support some of Earth’s richest biodiversity1 and provide essential ecosystem services to society2, but they are often fragmented by barriers to free flow3. In Europe, attempts to quantify river connectivity have been hampered by the absence of a harmonized barrier database. Here we show that there are at least 1.2 million instream barriers...

Ballast water is one of the main vectors of transport of nuisance species among marine ports. Neither treatment nor interchange completely reduces the risk of ballast water containing DNA from harmful species, being a signal of potential threat. However, although there are some efficient treatments, they are not available on all ships and there mig...

The correct labeling of seafood is important to protect nature and the rights of consumers. Given the certainty that the resources of the sea are not inexhaustible, only strict regulations and the implementation of sustainable fishing systems and reliable and traceable marketing systems can help ensure the long‐term sustainability of fishery resour...

Many freshwater non‐indigenous species (NISs) are stocked for recreational fishing, in some cases illegally in protected areas. In this study, fish communities were monitored using environmental DNA, electrofishing and anglers’ catches as the sources of samples in a mountainous Biosphere Reserve in Asturias (northern Spain), where stocking is forbi...

Background: Bioassessment of rivers is a fundamental method to determine surface water quality. One of the groups most commonly employed as bioindicators of aquatic ecosystems are benthic macroinvertebrates. Their conventional assessment is based on morphological identification and entails several limitations, such as being time‐consuming and requi...

El proyecto de innovación docente “Juegos didácticos para la enseñanzaaprendizaje en ciencias naturales” realizado en colaboración interdepartamental (Ciencias de la Educación-Biología) y en diferentes ciclos universitarios (Grados- Master), se llevó a cabo durante el año académico 2016/2017. Con el propósito de ampliar el repertorio de metodología...

Rivers are a vital resource for human wellbeing. To reduce human impact on water bodies, the European Union has established an essential regulatory framework for protection and sustainable management (WFD; 2000/60/EC). In this strategy, reliable and economic bioindicators are a fundamental component. Benthic macroinvertebrates are the group most co...

COI OTU Table. Raw data obtained with COI marker clustered in family OTUs (Operational Taxonomic Units). N_genus: Number of genus per family within sampling points. NA: non-asignment at that level. (XLSX)

18S OTU Table. Raw data obtained with 18S marker clustered in family OTUs (Operational Taxonomic Units). N_genus: Number of genus per family within sampling points. NA: non-asignment at that level. (XLSX)

Background Many fish species have been introduced in wild ecosystems around the world to provide food or leisure, deliberately or from farm escapes. Some of those introductions have had large ecological effects. The north American native rainbow trout ( Oncorhynchus mykiss Walbaum, 1792) is one of the most widely farmed fish species in the world. I...

Amplification Plots of control DNAs Plot A: Amplification plot from rainbow trout assay, lines from two samples (one with rainbow trout DNA and the other with the same amoun of rainbow and brown trout DNA) are showed giving the same value for quantification cycles. Plot B: Amplification plot from brown trout assay, lines from two samples (one with...

Biological invasions have increased in recent decades due to globalization and human activities. These invasions are currently one of the main threats to biodiversity, and their early detection is essential for a rapid and effective response. Here, we explored the use of citizen science strategies to create an early alert to detect invasive species...

Background Salmonids are native from the North Hemisphere but have been introduced for aquaculture and sport fishing in the South Hemisphere and inhabit most rivers and lakes in temperate and cold regions worldwide. Five species are included in the Global Invasive Species Database: rainbow trout Oncorhynchus mykiss, Atlantic salmon Salmo salar, bro...

Sensitivity assays Mix 1–5: Mixes of S. namaycush and S. fontinalis DNA used in the development of the PCR-RFLP method, indicating the percentage of S. namaycush and the amount of DNA of each species in the mix. In bold are the diagnostic fragments that can be seen in the agarose gel.

Samples from different families of fishes from the laboratory collection employed for testing the Salmonidae-specific markers All the 16S rDNA haplotypes from each species obtained and employed in this work are available in GenBank with the accession numbers stated in the table.