DNA-based methods offer an opportunity to change how we monitor and assess our natural environment. One area of particular interest is the development of metrics based on DNA data. Natural England is seeking to develop ways to assess the ecological condition of ponds using data derived from DNA sequencing.
To do so, data from the England Ecosystem Survey (EES), which is currently collecting environmental DNA (eDNA) samples from ponds across England will be analysed. The aim of this project was to identify and survey 45 high-quality ponds to collect data that will complement the information being gathered by the EES. Freshwater Land Class analysis suggested that the EES dataset is likely to have relatively few high-quality ponds in four of the 10 Freshwater Land Classes, therefore, the sites selected for this project aimed to fill these gaps.
Surveys of the 45 high-quality ponds identified here ensures that, for 8 Land Classes, there are likely to be between 10 and 23 high-quality sites in the combined dataset. To assess the 45 survey ponds’ actual quality, wetland plant data was analysed using the PSYM algorithm. Of these, 43 ponds classified into PSYM’s Good category, indicating that these ponds are high-quality. The two remaining ponds classified as Moderate. Physico-chemical data from the survey ponds showed that there was a broad distribution of values for each of the main variables that are though to affect pond community type at a local level, which suggests that natural variation is well represented across the 45 sites.