Water Resources Research Act Program

Details for Project ID MN_2024_Vagle

Optimizing MinION field protocols for detecting aquatic invasive plants in Upper Mississippi River Basin

Institute: Minnesota
USGS Grant Number:
Year Established: 2024 Start Date: 2024-12-16 End Date: 2027-12-15
Total Federal Funds: $300,001 Total Non-Federal Funds: $300,001

Principal Investigators: Grant Vagle

Project Summary: We will refine protocols for using a rapid and portable field tool (the Nanopore MinION device) to detect aquatic invasive plant species from environmental DNA (eDNA). This project builds upon a prior project which developed the sequencing protocols for detecting aquatic invasive plant species with the tool. The field work will take place within the Upper Mississippi River Basin alongside traditional aquatic plant field sampling done by the Upper Mississippi River Restoration Program (UMRR). We will investigate the impacts on accuracy of the tool in detecting aquatic invasive plant species from water body characteristics (e.g., size) and sampling design (e.g., water volume sampled). The results of this project will provide species and water body type (e.g., river, lake, stream) specific guidance on how to improve studies utilizing eDNA to monitor aquatic invasive plant species.