DNA metabarcoding—Need for robust experimental designs to draw sound ecological conclusions

Summary

DNA metabarcoding, especially when coupled with high-throughput DNA sequencing, is currently revolutionizing our capacity to assess biodiversity across a full range of taxa and habitats, from soil microbes (e.g., Thompson et al., 2017) to large marine fish (e.g., Thomsen et al., 2016), and from contemporary to tens of thousands year-old biological communities (e.g., Willerslev et al., 2003). The breadth of potential applications is immense and spans surveys on the diversity or diet of species native to specific ecosystems to bioindication (Pawlowski et al., 2018). The approach is also especially cost-effective and easy to implement, which makes DNA metabarcoding one of the tools of choice of the 21st century for fundamental research and the future of large-scale biodiversity monitoring pro