By Frank Hanson
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Please join us as we re-engage and develop our online Evening Talk’s new approach to community engagement. We will begin this effort with a continuation of our first 2020 Wild Steelhead Review evening event featuring eDNA research. This evening talk will share information on using this process including current research and equipment. Dr. Austen Thomas, Senior Research Scientist will give us an introduction and his use on conducting e-DNA research. There are specific Olympic Peninsula eDNA research efforts currently proceeding. We hope to bring additional natural resource professionals working on the Olympic Peninsula conducting eDNA research to you through the future of on line Evening Talks. Dr. Thomas will share his information for understanding the use of eDNA to detect the presence of specific populations of fish and other aquatic species in our local rivers and estuaries.
Austen joined Smith-Root in 2015 and has directed the development of the Environmental DNA division. Working alongside the in-house engineering team, he designed the Smith-Root eDNA sampling system and fostered partnerships with other companies to help make Smith-Root a leader in eDNA technology. He is a research Molecular Ecologist with over 15 years of experience conducting field surveys, and he possesses a strong publication record with a focus on DNA metabarcoding. Austen has participated in national eDNA standardization efforts and he consistently strives to improve eDNA sampling processes for the betterment of data quality. He will share on line some of the equipment he uses during his presentation and speak to the practical application for the Olympic Peninsula.
Currently, there is a local coastal eDNA working group coordinated by our NWIF (Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission) coastal office. These local working groups of natural resource professionals are looking at coordinating and disseminating current efforts in using eDNA. Their efforts are focused on future data sharing and the “state of the art“ techniques on this process to target authentic evaluations of occupancy and spatial distributions of various aquatic species in Washington coast watersheds. This presentation tonight is to begin to bring information of this type of evaluation of using eDNA to our community and to help strengthen and support our local natural resource professionals with another tool in our toolbox.
Evening Talks at ONRC are funded through the Rosmond Forestry Education Fund. This is a new approach to move fully online. For more information contact Frank Hanson at 360-374-4556 or fsh2@uw.edu.
