Corrigendum: Using DNA metabarcoding for assessing chironomid diversity and community change in mosquito controlled temporary wetlands. MBMG 2: e21060. https://doi.org/10.3897/mbmg.2.21060

By

Theissinger, Kathrin
Kästel, Anna
Elbrecht, Vasco
Makkonen, Jenny
Michiels, Susanne
Schmidt, Susanne I.
Allgeier, Stefanie
Leese, Florian 1978-
Brühl, Carsten A.

Type

Article

Date of Publication

2020-12-11

Original Publication

Metabarcoding and metagenomics

Volume

4

Pages

1--2

Subjects

Bacillus thuringensis var. israelensis (Bti) , Barcode of Life Datasystems (BOLD) , chironomid saprobic index , cytochrome oxidase subunit I (COI) , ecotoxicology , emergence , macrozoobenthos , operational taxonomic units (OTU)

Contributed by

Pensoft Publishers

Language

English

Published by

Bulgaria Pensoft Publishers 2017-

Identifiers

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3897/mbmg.4.60854

 

Abstract

Chironomids have been proposed as important indicators for monitoring freshwater ecosystems, however, morphological determination is very challenging. In this study, we investigated the effectiveness of metabarcoding for chironomid diversity assessment and tested the retrieved chironomid operational taxonomic units (OTUs) for possible changes in relative abundance and species diversity in relation to mosquito control actions in four temporary wetlands. The biocide Bacillus thuringiensis var. israelensis (Bti) is widely applied for mosquito control in temporary wetlands of the German Upper Rhine Valley. Even though Bti is considered environmentally friendly, several studies have shown non-target effects on chironomids, a key food resource in wetland ecosystems Three of the studied wetlands were, for the first year after 20 years of Bti treatment, partly left Bti-untreated in a split field design, and one wetland has never been treated with Bti. Our metabarcoding approach detected 54 chironomid OTUs across all study sites, of which 70% could be identified to species level comparisons against the BOLD database. We showed that metabarcoding increased chironomid species determination by 70%. However, we found only minor significant effects of Bti on the chironomid community composition. Subsequent studies will have to address if and how the chironomid community composition might change in the now Bti-untreated temporary wetlands to assess effects of Bti.