If you ever had sleepless nights, wondering what were the most important samples taken during this METEOR cruise, don’t dispair – we got you! The simple answer is: eDNA water samples!

Okay, we admit it, we might be a bit biased as we are part of the eDNA sampling team; most likely the answer will differ depending on whom you ask. But sampling eDNA is actually one of the main purposes of this cruise, therefore it is of course extremely important! And why wouldn’t it be? eDNA is an absolute all-rounder when it comes to scientific research! The term eDNA, or environmental DNA, refers to the genetic material left behind by organisms. By sampling water (as in our case), air or sediment, the DNA can be extracted later in the lab and be used to identify species that have been present at or near the sampling location! Since you can do this basically everywhere on Earth and with any species whose genome has been analyzed before, eDNA can be used for all kinds of research, from environmental monitoring and management to community research and food web analysis – the possible applications are endless. In our case, we are interested in the interaction between cetacean predators and their cephalopod prey here at the Azores. The samples we are collecting are therefore gonna be analyzed for cephalopod and cetacean DNA once we are back. We know, extremely amazing, right? It is definitely worth a couple hours of filtering the water every day (and we got good music in the lab too, time basically flies by).

So, now that you heard all this incredible stuff about our eDNA work, keep in mind: All types of scientific samples are great (but eDNA is the coolest😎).

The eDNA-Team (Emma, Ina, Sami and Luis)