This ARCEngage grant supported exploratory studies in environmental monitoring in close partnership with the False Creek Friends Society (FCFS). Their vision for False Creek is to restore it and steward it in line with First Nations principles such that False Creek becomes a healthy environment for all, human and non-human, to experience and enjoy. This ARC Engage period largely covered some proof-of-concept work ahead of a larger grant application that would essentially use the same methods. My role was to design an environmental study based on some initial work done in 2022. We decided on the technique of environmental DNA monitoring. Environmental DNA (eDNA) comes from a combination of micro-organisms and cells floating in the water, as well as free-floating DNA. Every organism will leave behind a trace amount of DNA when they pass through water, and by analyzing that DNA, their presence or absence can be tracked. Due to my previous research experience and the context of False Creek, FCFS and I agreed to examine bacterial eDNA, since that can act as a proxy measurement for contamination or ecological conditions. I worked with FCFS to determine a set of sampling sites, and hired a student research assistant to help collect these water samples using specialized equipment. A second student research assistant used eDNA samples generously donated by another faculty member to check that our DNA preparation process was reliable and compatible with our DNA sequencing equipment. Lastly, a senior bioinformatics student was hired to develop the software process of interpreting the resulting DNA sequences into useable information. He navigated the many nuanced and often challenging process of using different pieces of software to build a “pipeline” and showed that this worked by using freely available eDNA datasets. At the conclusion of this project, we were able to show that our sample collection, processing, and analysis processes were up and running. Unfortunately, due to time constraints and a significant delay in receiving purchased materials, we weren’t able to process samples through this pipeline. However, this work directly contributed to the success of a major grant application that will fund a similar study for three years.
