Ecologists have been collecting genetic material samples, called environmental DNA (eDNA), to catalogue and monitor biodiversity. Based on these DNA traces, they can determine which species are present in a certain area.
While obtaining samples from water or soil is easy, other habitats such as the forest canopy are more difficult for researchers to access, which makes it harder to track the species that live there.
Researchers at ETH Zurich and the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research WSL, and the company SPYGEN have partnered to develop a special drone that can autonomously collect samples on tree branches.
The drone is equipped with adhesive strips. When the aircraft lands on a branch, material from the branch sticks to these strips. Researchers can then extract DNA in the lab, analyse it and assign it to genetic matches of the various organisms using database comparisons.
The differing thickness and elasticity...