title: Next-Generation Global Biomonitoring: Large-scale, Automated Reconstruction of Ecological Networks.
abstract: We foresee a new global-scale, ecological approach to biomonitoring emerging within the next decade that can detect ecosystem change accurately, cheaply, and generically. Next-generation sequencing of DNA sampled from the Earth's environments would provide data for the relative abundance of operational taxonomic units or ecological functions. Machine-learning methods would then be used to reconstruct the ecological networks of interactions implicit in the raw NGS data. Ultimately, we envision the development of autonomous samplers that would sample nucleic acids and upload NGS sequence data to the cloud for network reconstruction. Large numbers of these samplers, in a global array, would allow sensitive automated biomonitoring of the Earth's major ecosystems at high spatial and temporal resolution, revolutionising our understanding of ecosystem change.
authors.affiliation: Agroécologie, AgroSup Dijon, INRA, University of Bourgogne Franche-Comté, F-21000 Dijon, France. Electronic address: David.Bohan@inra.fr.
authors.forename: David A
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: Bohan
authors.affiliation: BIOGECO, INRA, University of Bordeaux, 33615 Pessac, France.
authors.forename: Corinne
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Vacher
authors.affiliation: Computational Bioinformatics Laboratory, Department of Computing, Imperial College London, London, SW7 2AZ, UK.
authors.forename: Alireza
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Tamaddoni-Nezhad
authors.affiliation: Syngenta Crop Protection AG, PO Box 4002, Basel, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Alan
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Raybould
authors.affiliation: School of Biological Sciences, University of Essex, Colchester, Essex, CO4 3SQ, UK.
authors.forename: Alex J
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Dumbrell
authors.affiliation: Department of Life Sciences, Imperial College London, Silwood Park Campus, Berkshire, SL5 7PY, UK.
authors.forename: Guy
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Woodward
mesh_terms: D044822:Biodiversity; D004247:DNA; D004463:Ecology; D017753:Ecosystem; D004784:Environmental Monitoring; D059014:High-Throughput Nucleotide Sequencing; D000069550:Machine Learning; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA
chemical_list: D004247:DNA