Environmental DNA Used to Provide Early Detection of Invasive Crayfish

Using eDNA to monitor hard to detect species can provide early warnings of newly arrived invasive species.

“The lakes in the Boulder Junction area have had long-term monitoring from the University of Wisconsin and the University of Notre Dame, so we had an existing gradient of lakes where this invasive crayfish had never been observed to lakes where we know rusty crayfish are abundant,” says U of I aquatic ecologist Eric Larson.