Zinger L. auteur aut IRD Donald J. auteur aut IRD Brosse S. auteur aut IRD Gonzalez M. A. auteur aut IRD Iribar A. auteur aut IRD Leroy Céline auteur aut IRD Murienne J. auteur aut IRD Orivel J. auteur aut IRD Schimann H. auteur aut IRD Taberlet P. auteur aut IRD Lopes C. M. auteur aut IRD text journalArticle eng text/pdf born digital access The rainforests of the Neotropics shelter a vast diversity of plant, animal and microscopic species that provide critical ecosystem goods and services for both local and worldwide populations. These environments face a major crisis due to increased deforestation, pollution, and climate change, emphasizing the need for more effective conservation efforts. The adequate monitoring of these ecosystems has proven a complex and time consuming endeavour, which depends on ever dwindling taxonomic expertise. To date, many species remain undiscovered, let alone described, with otherwise limited information regarding known species population distributions and densities. Overcoming these knowledge shortfalls and practical limitations is becoming increasingly possible through techniques based on environmental DNA (eDNA), i.e., DNA that can be obtained from environmental samples (e.g. tissues, soil, sediment, water, etc.). When coupled with high-throughput sequencing, these techniques now enable realistic, cost-effective, and standardisable biodiversity assessments. This opens up enormous opportunities for advancing our understanding of complex and species-rich tropical communities, but also in facilitating large-scale biomonitoring programs in the neotropics. In this review, we provide a brief introduction to eDNA methods, and an overview of their current and potential uses in both terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems of neotropical rainforests. We also discuss the limits and challenges of these methods for our understanding and monitoring of biodiversity, as well as future research and applied perspectives of these techniques in neotropical rainforests, and beyond. specialized phylogenetic community ecology real-time pcr land-use soil bacterial microbial communities extracellular DNA endophytic fungi biodiversity diversity amazon AMERIQUE CENTRALE AMERIQUE DU SUD ANTILLES AMAZONIE ZONE TROPICALE 082 074 020 021 62 331-373 2020 0065-2504 https://www.documentation.ird.fr/hor/fdi:010080904 10.1016/bs.aecr.2020.01.001 0065-2504 [F B010080904] https://www.documentation.ird.fr/hor/fdi:010080904 https://www.documentation.ird.fr/intranet/publi/2021/02/010080904.pdf Accès réservé (Intranet de l'IRD) IRD - Base Horizon / Pleins textes 2021-03-10 2025-02-24 fdi:010080904 fre