This is the latest of our ventures and a project that started in 2017. Since then, we set up a fully functioning eDNA lab and are running several projects on eDNA and metabarcoding in coastal South Africa, including marine and estuarine environments. We have expanded our work into Mozambique, through a collaboration with Dr Nasreen Peer from Argonaut Science. In 2019 we were awarded funding through the National Geographic Okavango Wilderness Project to investigate the potential of eDNA to monitor fish biodiversity in the Okavango Delta. Here is a short movie about our first sampling trip in May 2019.

Selected key papers:

• Oostuizen D, Seyour M, Atkinson L, von der Heyden S. (2023) Extending deep-sea benthic biodiversity inventories with environmental DNA metabarcoding. Marine Biology, 170: 60
  
• von der Heyden S. (2023) Environmental DNA surveys of African biodiversity: state of knowledge, challenges and opportunities. Environmental DNA, 5: 12-17
  
• Czachur MV, Seymour M, Creer S, von der Heyden S. ( 2021) Novel insights into marine fish biodiversity across a pronounced environmental gradient using replicated environmental DNA analyses. Environmental DNA 4: 181 - 190
  
• Gaither M, DiBattista JD, Leray M, von der Heyden S. (2021) Metabarcoding the marine environment: from single species to biogeographic patterns. Environmental DNA 4: 3 -8
  
• Bani A, De Brauwer M, Creer S, Dumbrell AJ, Limmon G, Jompa J, von der Heyden S, Beger M. (2020) Informing marine spatial planning decisions with environmental DNA. Advances in Ecological Research 62: 375-407