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Pacific eDNA Coastal Observatory (PECO)

Pacific eDNA Coastal Observatory (PECO) will develop efficient tools, platforms and networks to enable the use of environmental DNA for broad-scale biogeographic assessment, build capacity to track biodiversity changes in time, and connect users with updatable predictive tools on biodiversity changes throughout the Ocean Decade. 

PECO is a growing network that spans a latitudinal cross-section of 26 degrees latitude (Alaska to Southern California), in a cross-national region of high economic and social interest in marine resource management, and our partners simultaneously collect environmental DNA alongside visual surveys, with centralized metabarcoding.

PECO’s 4 objectives are;

  • Build capacity for a large-scale partnered multi-national environmental DNA observatory, for eDNA collection, processing, and analysis.
  • Evaluate the sampling effort needed to optimize the eDNA metabarcoding approach for biogeographical inference of nearshore fish and invertebrates.
  • Assess, based on species distributions and their changes, the climate sensitivity of nearshore taxa and entire communities as a function of latitude and species traits.
  • Build updatable forecasts of the timing of expected range shifts based on eDNA biodiversity observations Provide a public interface to share findings through consultation with end-users.

PECO was introduced in Webinar 3 of the OBON Network Spotlight series – view on YouTube.

Lead Institute
Collaborating institutes
Key contacts

Jennifer Sunday

Project period

1 June, 2021 – 10 December, 2029 

Joined OBON in June, 2022
Find out more about the project
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