一升水里能测出大海？
U.S. government agencies monitoring fisheries, endangered species, and environmental impacts ought to leverage the DNA present in every drop of seawater, say the organizers of a conference on marine environmental DNA (eDNA), held at Rockefeller University in New York City in November 2018.
2018年11月在纽约洛克菲勒大学举行的海洋环境DNA会议的组织者说，美国政府机构应该利用每一滴海水中存在的DNA来监控渔业、濒危物种和环境影响。
Biological surveys based on eDNA are reliable and poised to cut costs and save time, they argue in a report released last week.
他们在上周发布的一份报告中称，基于eDNA的生物调查是可靠的，可以节省成本和时间。
The report calls for the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and other government agencies that survey marine life to add the technology to their standard palette of assessment techniques.
该报告呼吁美国国家海洋和大气管理局和其他调查海洋生物的政府机构将这项技术纳入他们的评估技术标准。
“We are exploring all pathways to get the critical information of what animals are where and how many there are,” says conference attendee Michael Weise, who manages the Office of Naval Research’s Marine Mammals and Biology program in Arlington, Virginia.
“我们正在探索所有的途径，以获得关于什么动物在哪里以及有多少动物的关键信息，”会议与会者迈克尔·魏斯说。
“We are already developing our capabilities using eDNA and we will continue to push that forward. There are gaps and challenges, but I think they are surmountable in the near term.”
“我们已经在利用eDNA开发我们的能力，我们将继续推进这一进程。虽然存在差距和挑战，但我认为它们在短期内是可以克服的。”
Animals leave behind a trail of genetic material as they move through their environment, often in the form of skin cells.
动物在环境中移动时会留下遗传物质的痕迹，通常是以皮肤细胞的形式。
Scientists can collect these loose fragments of DNA from soil or water and analyze them to ferret out their source.
科学家可以从土壤或水中收集这些松散的DNA片段，并对它们进行分析，找出它们的来源。
In the ocean, the DNA trail goes cold after about 24 hours, meaning that any species that shows up in analysis can’t be too far off.
在海洋中，DNA痕迹在24小时后就会变弱，这意味着任何在分析中出现的物种都不可能离得太远。
For researchers and resource managers trying to find animals in a vast, opaque sea, the technique offers new opportunities.
对于研究人员和资源管理人员来说，这项技术为他们在广阔而不透明的海洋中寻找动物提供了新的机会。
To sample eDNA, researchers push seawater through a very fine filter.
为了取样eDNA，研究人员会将海水推入一个非常细的滤网。
The DNA can then be pulled off the filter, quantitative ecologist Christopher Jerde of the University of California, Santa Barbara, explains.
加州大学圣巴巴拉分校的定量生态学家克里斯托弗.杰德解释说，DNA可以从过滤器中被提取出来。
After collecting the DNA from the water sample, researchers can isolate segments of genetic code unique to a species, called genetic markers.
在从水样中收集DNA后，研究人员可以分离出一种物种特有的遗传密码片段，称为遗传标记。
These genetic markers can then be compared to a library of such markers to figure out what they came from.
然后将这些遗传标记与这些标记的文库进行比较，以找出它们的来源。
The technique could supplement and eventually supplant collecting entire organisms, says Jerde, who works on eDNA but was not involved in the conference report.
杰德说，这项技术可以补充并最终取代收集整个生物体的技术。杰德研究的是eDNA工作，但没有参与会议报告。
“It takes a lot of work to physically survey the oceans—you need so many different setups to capture different species,” he says.
他说:“对海洋进行物理调查需要很多工作，你需要很多不同的方法来捕捉不同的物种。”
“The cost savings [of eDNA] is massive, and because it’s so quick and easy to collect water, you’re able to do it across broad geographical regions.”
“(eDNA)节省的成本是巨大的，而且因为它收集水非常迅速和容易，你可以跨越广阔的地理区域。”
Conference organizer and co-author of the report Mark Stoeckle of Rockefeller University has developed an eDNA tool called Go Fish that can identify species in a sample in 3 days or less at a cost of $15 for a single species and $8 for each additional species.
会议组织者和报告的合著者、洛克菲勒大学的马克.斯多克开发了一种名为Go Fish的eDNA工具，可以在3天或更短的时间内识别样本中的物种，测单个物种的成本为15美元，另外还要测每个物种的成本为8美元。
Using a different analysis, a single liter of water can reveal the identity of all animals nearby.
通过一种不同的分析，一升水就可以揭示附近所有动物的身份。
Testing water for stray DNA also doesn’t harm the animals being studied, whereas many traditional methods injure or kill their subjects.
在水中检测游离DNA也不会伤害被研究的动物，而许多传统方法会伤害或杀死被研究的动物。
The techniques, which were first tested in the ocean about 7 years ago, have thus far been used by researchers, but not on the scale of government monitoring.
这些技术大约在7年前首次在海洋中测试，迄今为止，研究人员一直在使用这些技术，但还没有达到政府监控的规模。
For instance, scoops of seawater detected great white sharks off the coast of Southern California in a 2018 study by Jerde and others published in Frontiers in Marine Science.
例如，在2018年Jerde和其他人发表在《海洋科学前沿》上的一项研究中，从舀起的海水中在南加州海岸发现了大白鲨。
The technology could one day be deployed in shark-detecting buoys, he says.
他说，这项技术有一天会应用到鲨鱼探测浮标上。
Other researchers have used eDNA to study whale sharks, killer whales, and whole ecosystems.
其他研究人员利用eDNA研究鲸鲨、虎鲸和整个生态系统。
On a local scale, Stoeckle used eDNA to detect the arrival of winter flounder in New York Harbor, marking the beginning of the season in which regulations forbid dredging.
在当地范围内，斯多克使用eDNA检测纽约港冬季比目鱼的到来，这标志着禁止疏浚的季节的开始。
The usefulness of eDNA rests on the strength of the genetic library scientists use to interpret it, an area Stoeckle says is still developing, especially for invertebrate species.
eDNA的有用性取决于科学家用来解释它的基因库的强度，斯多克说，这一领域仍在发展，特别是对无脊椎动物物种来说。
In waters near humans, scientists must also be wary of contamination.
在靠近人类的水域，科学家也必须警惕污染。
“If tilapia and Atlantic salmon DNA show up in the East River in New York [City], the likelihood is that that genetic material came from human wastewater,” Stoeckle says.
斯多克说:“如果纽约东河发现了罗非鱼和大西洋鲑鱼的DNA，那么这些遗传物质很可能来自人类废水。”
Stoeckle and report co-author Jesse Ausubel, a frequent collaborator also at Rockefeller University, are optimistic that NOAA and other government organizations could simply tack eDNA technology on to existing methods.
斯多克和报告的共同作者杰西.奥苏贝尔乐观地认为，NOAA和其他政府机构可以简单地将eDNA技术附加到现有方法上。
Ausubel says he and other conference organizers had encouraging conversations in late 2018 with high-level officials at NOAA and the U.S. Navy.
奥苏贝尔说，他和其他会议组织者在2018年底与NOAA和美国海军的高层官员进行了令人鼓舞的对话。
The report’s other recommendations include establishing long-term eDNA monitoring sites to track ecosystems over time and exploring the potential of eDNA to inform decisions such as setting commercial quotas.
该报告的其他建议包括建立长期的eDNA监测点，以便在一段时间内跟踪生态系统，并探索eDNA为制定商业配额等决策提供信息的潜力。
Ausubel is convinced of eDNA’s promise. “I’ve been trying to do biodiversity studies for 30 years, and this is a revolution.”
奥苏贝尔很看好eDNA的前景。“我做生物多样性研究已经有30年了，这会是一场革命。”
问题：
文中提到了利用eDNA进行物种检测有哪些优点（多选）？
A.廉价 B.不伤害动物 C.一滴水即可 D.取样简单
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千万分之六
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