Konstanze Steiner and Georgia Thomson-Laing talk about the development of DNA based methods to detect taonga species
Lakes380 researchers Konstanze Steiner and Georgia Thomson-Laing recently talked to Cawthron Radio about the development of DNA-based methods to detect taonga species that live in New Zealand lakes.
Konstanze and Georgia have been developing DNA-based methods to detect tuna (eel) and kākahi (freshwater mussels) in environmental samples. By extracting DNA shed from the tuna and kākahi into the water and sediments of lakes, they are able to determine if these native aquatic species currently live in the lake and how abundant they are. These methods provide a new avenue to map the distribution of these species at scale not previously possible. Once their methods are fully optimised they hope to use them to explore historic populations of these species from lake sediment cores. Check out the interview here.
