BUSINESS
Platinum Jubilee
NatureMetrics, a research company based in Surrey Research Park, explains ‘eDNA’, the game changing technology that can help reverse the extinction and climate crises.
A MEASURED APPROACH TO THE SURVIVAL OF OUR PLANET BREAKTHROUGH
When it comes to the climate crisis, the value of protecting biodiversity has been overlooked until relatively recently. Happily, though – and especially since COP26 - the world has recognised that our only chance of limiting global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees is to preserve and restore nature on an unprecedented scale. The cost of not doing so is stark, especially for business. In the short term, harming biodiversity can result in mitigation costs linked to protected species legislation. In the medium to long term, it can lead to the breakdown of ecosystem services such as pollination, the provision of clean air and water, soil health and productivity – all of which humankind needs for its survival. Clearly, it pays to account for nature. This crucial realisation is expected to translate into new global goals and targets for biodiversity that will filter down into policies and regulations at all levels.
In response, a new technology has emerged that is a complete gamechanger for measuring biodiversity at scale. This technology measures environmental DNA (or eDNA) – the small traces of DNA that are left in the environment by a given species.
Organisations are now looking for ways to monitor their progress in achieving positive change – but biodiversity is extremely complex and difficult to measure. Not only that, but conventional biodiversity survey methods are expensive to implement, demanding of field expertise that is in short supply, and offer data on only a tiny fraction of species. This can’t provide anything like the data that’s needed to enable meaningful goals and targets to be set and for progress to be measured.
Their technology is so simple to use ❛❛ on the ground that it’s been used by school children and citizen scientists ❜❜ 36
Leading the charge with this technology is NatureMetrics, which was founded in 2014 to deliver biodiversity data at scales that hadn’t been possible before. The company has two eDNA laboratories in the UK and Canada, which have delivered comprehensive data from soil, and freshwater and marine samples on species from bacteria to blue whales to more than 450 clients across the renewable energy, infrastructure, water and banking sectors. Their technology is so simple to use on the ground that it’s been used by school children and citizen scientists with just as good results as ecological consultants, meaning that monitoring can be conducted by non-specialists and local stakeholders or by technical contractors – whichever suits their clients. If a company wanted to find out what species were present in and around a body of water under its responsibility, their site-based team or contractor
