Our latest study, published in Nature Communications, shows that archived air filters can reconstruct biodiversity change over more than three decades — detecting over 2,700 genera from bacteria to birds and mammals, and revealing a long-term decline linked to commercial forest management.
Main Findings:
Airborne eDNA from archived air filters captures broad ecosystem biodiversity across taxa.
Decades-old air filters preserve high-quality DNA, enabling retrospective biodiversity analysis.
Clear seasonal patterns and long-term ecological trends are detectable in airborne DNA signals.
The method recovers thousands of taxa, spanning plants, animals, fungi, and microbes.
Demonstrates the potential of airborne eDNA for long-term biodiversity monitoring across time and space.