Abstract Facing unprecedented challenges in biodiversity conservation due to global environmental changes and human activities, traditional survey methods are limited by inefficiency, high costs, and poor detection of rare/cryptic species. Environmental DNA (eDNA) technology, extracting and analyzing genetic material from environmental matrices (water, soil, etc.), has revolutionized monitoring. With non-invasiveness, ultra-high sensitivity and high throughput, it boosts detection of elusive/endangered species and enables large-scale spatiotemporal biodiversity research. Its applications cover three core areas: targeted detection of single species (e.g., endangered/invasive taxa), multi-species community profiling, and population genetic analysis. It also assesses ecosystem health, guides ecological restoration, and warns of invasive species for informed management. However, bottlenecks exist: no standardized protocols across matrices, data interpretation uncertainties (e.g., eDNA concentration vs. species abundance), and incomplete regional reference databases. Future priorities include matrix-specific standardized workflows, integrating mechanistic models to correct artifacts, and curating quality regional databases, to drive its adoption and build intelligent real-time monitoring systems for conservation.
Yuan et al. (Wed,) studied this question.