Adoption of environmental DNA in public agency practice

Abstract

Environmental DNA (eDNA) analysis has matured to the point that it is ready for deployment in many applications, particularly in aquatic environments. But public agencies have yet to adopt eDNA methods into their environmental decision making routines at scale, even when eDNA offers clear advantages to those now in use. This article provides a perspective on this gap by considering adoption of a new technology as a path‐dependent, social process in which some paths lead to outcomes that provide far greater benefits than others. We use the diffusion of innovations to investigate eDNA adoption by government agencies, in an effort to (1) identify likely paths toward institutionalized uptake, and (2) suggest ways of avoiding societally inefficient adoption outcomes. Because—as in any scientific endeavor—the best eDNA practices will continue to change, public agencies must remain open to improvements while building a useful and validated array of methods for routine eDNA application. Here we suggest one mechanism for doing so, which we call collaborative governance.

Lessons learned from eDNA adoption in the management of bigheaded carps in Chicago IL USA Area Waterways

“…Our experience with eDNA and bigheaded carps was a manifestation of the general and well-known difficulty of adopting new technology. Technology adoption is a path-dependent social process, with more potential pathways that result in suboptimal outcomes for society than pathways that lead to optimal or near optimal outcomes (Lee et al, 2023). However, the history reviewed in this paper, and the on-going process of eDNA technology development and adoption in the CAWS and Great Lakes is an imperfect example of the collaborative governance pathway that is recommended by Lee et al (2023) as the approach most likely to lead to a societally optimal outcome.…”

“…Technology adoption is a path-dependent social process, with more potential pathways that result in suboptimal outcomes for society than pathways that lead to optimal or near optimal outcomes (Lee et al, 2023). However, the history reviewed in this paper, and the on-going process of eDNA technology development and adoption in the CAWS and Great Lakes is an imperfect example of the collaborative governance pathway that is recommended by Lee et al (2023) as the approach most likely to lead to a societally optimal outcome. It brought together three of the four categories of partners viewed by Lee et al (2023) as key to collaborative governance: resource managers, researchers (both university and government), and policy leadership.…”

“…There are many meetings and reports including university-based researchers, government-based researchers, government natural resource managers, policy makers, and those in nascent eDNA-based industries, calling for more rapid adoption eDNA in ways that maximize its utility and minimize its limitations (Bunce & Freeth, 2022;Darling, 2019;Kelly et al, 2023;Lee et al, 2023;Lodge, 2022;Stein et al, 2023).…”

“…In the subsequent 15 years, research using eDNA has proliferated (Pawlowski et al, 2020), the number of companies providing materials and supplies for eDNA sampling and analysis is growing, and calls for more rapid adoption of eDNA for natural resource decision-making by government agencies are strengthening (Lee et al, 2023). This is true, for example, in Canada (National Standards of Canada, 2021), New Zealand (Bunce & Freeth, 2022), Europe (Bruce et al, 2021), and the United States (Kelly et al, 2023;Lodge, 2022;Morisette et al, 2021;Sepulveda et al, 2020).…”

“…If you engage researchers in a cooperative agreement (not a contract), welcome their questions and opinions, be patient, and embrace co-creation (Darling, 2019) LODGE computer) keyboard despite its ergonomically inefficient order of letters (Lee et al, 2023).…”