Ricerc@Sapienza

Environmental DNA (eDNA) analysis is an efficient and easy-to-standardise molecular tool that has gained widespread importance during the past 10 years, as part of the worldwide campaign to investigate and monitor biodiversity by using globally accessible DNA-based systems (iBOL; https://ibol.org). Genetic methods are increasingly used to assess species diversity, as they are faster and often allow better taxonomic resolution than manual identification methods. However,...

The lake sediments of Hasseldala Port in south-east Sweden provide an archive of local and regional environmental conditions similar to 14.5-9.5 ka BP (thousand years before present) and allow testing DNA sequencing techniques to reconstruct past vegetation changes. We combined shotgun sequencing with plant micro- and macrofossil analyses to investigate sediments dating to the Allerod (14.1-12.7 ka BP), Younger Dryas (12.7-11.7 ka BP), and Preboreal (<11.7 ka BP). Number of reads and taxa were not associated with sample age or organic content.

The purpose of this Milankovitch review is to explain the significance of Quaternary DNA studies and the importance of the recent methodological advances that have enabled the study of late Quaternary remains in more detail, and the testing of new assumptions in evolutionary biology and phylogeography to reconstruct the past. The topic is wide, and this review is not intended to be an exhaustive account of all the aDNA work performed in the last three decades on late-Quaternary remains.