Water Resources Research Act Program

Details for Project ID 2023_MN_Waterhouse

Development of new eDNA tools to detect aquatic invasive plants in Upper Mississippi River Basin

Institute: Minnesota
USGS Grant Number:
Year Established: 2023 Start Date: 2024-01-01 End Date: 2026-12-31
Total Federal Funds: $229,440 Total Non-Federal Funds: $229,440

Principal Investigators: Lynn Waterhouse

Project Summary: We will develop portable and rapid environmental DNA multispecies sequencing protocols (using the Nanopore MinION device) for detecting invasive aquatic plants through water samples. These tools will then be validated within the Upper Mississippi River Basin through comparison with ongoing, traditional aquatic plant field collections through the Upper Mississippi River Restoration Program and Minnesota’s Shallow Lakes Program. The results of this project provide guidance for new eDNA-based monitoring programs, including assessing the feasibility of these surveillance tools being used by future citizen science monitoring programs.