Appendix - Environmental DNA Results

This appendix contains site-level detail for the 2025 environmental DNA (eDNA) sampling program in the Peace project area. Headline per-species detection counts are presented in the main Results chapter; the tables below show which sites detected which species. Field blanks are tracked separately as quality-assurance samples — they test for protocol contamination, not site eDNA. Office blanks (samples filtered at the field accommodation rather than at site) are excluded from these tables because their UTM coordinates are inherited from related sites and do not represent real sampling locations.

The interactive map of these results is linked from the main Results chapter and at the end of this appendix.

Per-site detection results

Format: CODE(max_droplets), with * flagging samples that UNBC reran. Detected = ≥4 positive droplets per the standard ddPCR call threshold; Sub-threshold = 1-3 droplets, not interpretable as species presence per ddPCR convention; Not detected = 0 droplets across all runs.

edna_per_site |>
  fpr::fpr_kable(
    caption_text = "Site-level eDNA detection results across real environmental samples in the Peace project area. UNBC ID is the lab sample identifier; Pos. control = TRUE indicates the sample was collected at a site where the target species was also confirmed by electrofishing.",
    scroll = gitbook_on
  )
Table 5.28: Site-level eDNA detection results across real environmental samples in the Peace project area. UNBC ID is the lab sample identifier; Pos. control = TRUE indicates the sample was collected at a site where the target species was also confirmed by electrofishing.
Site ID Stream UNBC ID Pos. control Detected Sub-threshold Not detected
125000_ds_ed1 Tributary To Parsnip River M41347 RAIN(980) BULT(0), GRAY(0), SOCK(0)
125000_us_ed1 Tributary To Parsnip River M41348 RAIN(143) BULT(0), GRAY(0), SOCK(0)
125179_ds_ed1a Tributary To Missinka River M41349 RAIN(309) BULT(1)* GRAY(0), SOCK(0)
125179_us_ed1a Tributary To Missinka River M41351 yes RAIN(383)* BULT(0), GRAY(0), SOCK(0)
125180_ds_ed1 Tributary To Missinka River M41353 BULT(4), RAIN(330) GRAY(0), SOCK(0)
125180_us_ed1 Tributary To Missinka River M41354 RAIN(293) BULT(3) GRAY(0), SOCK(0)
125194_ds_ed1a Tributary To Missinka River M21242 BULT(1), RAIN(3)*
125231_ds_ed1c Tributary To Table River M41356 RAIN(205) BULT(0), GRAY(0), SOCK(0)
125231_us_ed1 Tributary To Table River M41357 RAIN(5) BULT(0), GRAY(0), SOCK(0)
125261_ds_ed1 Fern Creek M41358 RAIN(258) BULT(0), GRAY(0), SOCK(0)
125261_us_ed1a Fern Creek M41359 RAIN(533) BULT(0), GRAY(0), SOCK(0)
125261_us_ed1b Fern Creek M41360 RAIN(567) BULT(0), GRAY(0), SOCK(0)
198692_ds_ed1b Tributary To Kerry Lake M41362 RAIN(119) BULT(1) GRAY(0), SOCK(0)
198692_ds_ed2 Tributary To Kerry Lake M41363 RAIN(630) BULT(0), GRAY(0), SOCK(0)
198692_us_ed1 Tributary To Kerry Lake M41364 RAIN(235) BULT(0), GRAY(0), SOCK(0)
199663_ds_ed1 Tributary To Parsnip River M10139 BURB(195), RAIN(112) BULT(0), GRAY(0)
199663_us_ed1 Tributary To Parsnip River M10140 RAIN(65) BULT(0), BURB(0), GRAY(0)
203597_ds_ed1b Tributary To Nation River M41366 RAIN(173)* BULT(3)* GRAY(0), SOCK(0)
203597_us_ed1 Tributary To Nation River M41367 RAIN(213)* BULT(0), GRAY(0), SOCK(0)*
203605_ds_ed1 Tributary To Williston Reservoir M41368 RAIN(455) BULT(3)* GRAY(0), SOCK(0)
203605_us_ed1 Tributary To Williston Reservoir M41369 RAIN(429) BULT(1) GRAY(0), SOCK(0)
24718557_ed1 Missinka River M41370 RAIN(4) BULT(2), GRAY(1) SOCK(0)
57690_ds_ed1 Tributary To Wichcika Creek M41371 RAIN(10) BULT(0), GRAY(0), SOCK(0)
57690_us_ed1 Tributary To Wichcika Creek M41372 BULT(0), GRAY(0), RAIN(0), SOCK(0)
57695_ds_ed1 Tributary To Wichcika Creek M41373 BULT(0), GRAY(0), RAIN(0), SOCK(0)
57695_us_ed1 Tributary To Wichcika Creek M21244 RAIN(1) BULT(0)
57696_ds_ed1 Tributary To Wichcika Creek M21245 BULT(0), RAIN(0)
57696_us_ed1 Tributary To Wichcika Creek M21246 BULT(0), RAIN(0)


Field blanks

Field blanks filter distilled water at the field site to test for protocol contamination during collection and processing. Detections in blanks indicate potential cross-contamination, not species presence at the location — these rows are presented for QA transparency only, not as eDNA detections.

edna_field_blanks |>
  fpr::fpr_kable(
    caption_text = "Field blanks collected during the 2025 eDNA program in the Peace project area. Detections in blanks reflect protocol-side contamination, not site eDNA.",
    scroll = FALSE
  )
Table 5.29: Field blanks collected during the 2025 eDNA program in the Peace project area. Detections in blanks reflect protocol-side contamination, not site eDNA.
Site ID Stream UNBC ID Detected Sub-threshold Clean (0 droplets)
125231_ds_ed1a Tributary To Table River M41355 BULT(0), GRAY(0), RAIN(0), SOCK(0)
198692_ds_ed1a Tributary To Kerry Lake M41361 RAIN(5)* BULT(0), GRAY(0), SOCK(0)*
203597_ds_ed1a Tributary To Nation River M41365 RAIN(4)* BULT(0), GRAY(0), SOCK(0)*


Retests

UNBC reran a subset of samples to confirm borderline results. The table below lists every (site × species) combination that was rerun, including reruns from both real environmental samples and field blanks.

if (nrow(edna_retests) > 0) {
  edna_retests |>
    fpr::fpr_kable(
      caption_text = "UNBC retests for the 2025 Peace eDNA samples. Runs is the total number of times the sample x species combination was assayed; Max droplets is the highest positive-droplet count observed across all runs.",
      scroll = gitbook_on
    )
} else {
  cat("No retests in the Peace 2025 batch.\n")
}
Table 5.30: UNBC retests for the 2025 Peace eDNA samples. Runs is the total number of times the sample x species combination was assayed; Max droplets is the highest positive-droplet count observed across all runs.
Site ID Stream Species Code Sample type Runs Max droplets Result
125179_ds_ed1a Tributary To Missinka River Bull Trout BULT environmental 4 1 Sub-threshold (1-3 droplets, NOT a detection)
125179_us_ed1a Tributary To Missinka River Rainbow Trout RAIN environmental 4 383 Detected (≥4 droplets)
125194_ds_ed1a Tributary To Missinka River Rainbow Trout RAIN environmental 4 3 Sub-threshold (1-3 droplets, NOT a detection)
198692_ds_ed1a Tributary To Kerry Lake Bull Trout BULT field blank 4 0 No detection (0 droplets)
198692_ds_ed1a Tributary To Kerry Lake Arctic Grayling GRAY field blank 4 0 No detection (0 droplets)
198692_ds_ed1a Tributary To Kerry Lake Rainbow Trout RAIN field blank 6 5 Detected (≥4 droplets)
198692_ds_ed1a Tributary To Kerry Lake Kokanee SOCK field blank 6 0 No detection (0 droplets)
203597_ds_ed1a Tributary To Nation River Bull Trout BULT field blank 4 0 No detection (0 droplets)
203597_ds_ed1a Tributary To Nation River Arctic Grayling GRAY field blank 4 0 No detection (0 droplets)
203597_ds_ed1a Tributary To Nation River Rainbow Trout RAIN field blank 4 4 Detected (≥4 droplets)
203597_ds_ed1a Tributary To Nation River Kokanee SOCK field blank 4 0 No detection (0 droplets)
203597_ds_ed1b Tributary To Nation River Bull Trout BULT environmental 4 3 Sub-threshold (1-3 droplets, NOT a detection)
203597_ds_ed1b Tributary To Nation River Arctic Grayling GRAY environmental 4 0 No detection (0 droplets)
203597_ds_ed1b Tributary To Nation River Rainbow Trout RAIN environmental 4 173 Detected (≥4 droplets)
203597_ds_ed1b Tributary To Nation River Kokanee SOCK environmental 4 0 No detection (0 droplets)
203597_us_ed1 Tributary To Nation River Bull Trout BULT environmental 4 0 No detection (0 droplets)
203597_us_ed1 Tributary To Nation River Arctic Grayling GRAY environmental 4 0 No detection (0 droplets)
203597_us_ed1 Tributary To Nation River Rainbow Trout RAIN environmental 4 213 Detected (≥4 droplets)
203597_us_ed1 Tributary To Nation River Kokanee SOCK environmental 4 0 No detection (0 droplets)
203605_ds_ed1 Tributary To Williston Reservoir Bull Trout BULT environmental 4 3 Sub-threshold (1-3 droplets, NOT a detection)
24718557_ed1 Missinka River Bull Trout BULT environmental 4 2 Sub-threshold (1-3 droplets, NOT a detection)
24718557_ed1 Missinka River Arctic Grayling GRAY environmental 4 1 Sub-threshold (1-3 droplets, NOT a detection)


Interactive map

The interactive Peace eDNA map shows site-level detection results with toggleable per-species layers, an opt-in sub-threshold-signals layer (off by default), and an opt-in Controls layer for field blanks. See the interactive Peace eDNA map.

knitr::opts_chunk$set(echo=FALSE, message=FALSE, warning=FALSE)
source('scripts/packages.R')
source('scripts/tables.R')
source('scripts/functions.R')
my_site <- 125179