Mondo Knows Facts

A glass of water can reveal which fish are nearby

Environmental DNA from skin and waste identifies species in the sample Organisms shed cells constantly, and the fragments can be sequenced from water, soil or air. The method finds rare and shy species that nets miss. It shows presence rather than numbers, so it is usually paired with other surveys. It sits in Mondo's animals collection, one of 200 facts that each trace back to the reference below.

A glass of water can reveal which fish are nearby, photograph
Krzysztof%20Puszczy%u0144ski ยท CC0 1.0 ยท licence ยท source

Where this comes from

NOAA Fisheries

Facts that can change over time are reviewed and updated. If something here looks wrong, Mondo would rather know than be confidently incorrect.

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Tags: fieldwork, dna, surveying

A glass of water can reveal which fish are nearby: the short answers

Where does this come from, and can I check it?
Environmental DNA from skin and waste identifies species in the sample. The figure is taken from NOAA Fisheries, which is linked in full on this page. Every fact on Mondo Knows names its source rather than repeating an unsourced claim.
Is this really a animals fact?
Yes. It sits on the Animals shelf, one of 2,600 sourced facts grouped into space, animals, the human body, history, science and more. Category pages collect every fact in the same field.
What else can I read about it?
The links under the fact point to a quiz, game, puzzle or calculator on the same subject, and the shelf below shows related facts. The wording here is original, and quoted phrases are marked as quotations.