Project
Assessment of metabarcoding for characterizing diets of Great Lakes Walleye
This project evaluates whether DNA metabarcoding can provide a faster, more accurate way to understand what Walleye eat in Saginaw Bay and Lake Erie. Conventional stomach-content analysis often misses small, soft‑bodied, or partially digested prey, leaving many items unidentified. DNA methods may reveal a fuller picture of Walleye diets, but they must be carefully optimized to avoid technical problems, especially the tendency for the predator’s own DNA to overwhelm prey DNA in samples. This project will evaluate four genetic markers to find which one best identifies Great Lakes prey species, has the least bias during DNA amplification, and allows development of a “blocking primer” that reduces amplification of Walleye DNA without affecting similar species like Yellow Perch or Sauger. They will also test how well lab results match conventional pray assessments of stomach samples from 72 wild‑caught Walleyes collected across spring, summer, and fall. This will help determine whether DNA metabarcoding can reliably support management decisions, such as understanding seasonal diet shifts, differences between the two regions, and how well surveys reflect what Walleye actually eat.