On nature's trail
eDNA analysis is making it quicker and cheaper to track the response of wildlife to human-driven change across habitats.
Rain stopped play on Tuesday. Precipitation halted proceedings at the northern end of the A23 London-Portsmouth road, where it sweeps past the Kennington Oval cricket ground; but also halfway along the route south, skirting a damp business park just outside Guildford.
Here, a light but persistent spray prevented half a dozen journalists from taking a hands-on approach to testing the biodiversity levels of the UK’s most ecologically profiled artificial lake (if not the world’s).
The lake is regularly used by environment-tech startup NatureMetrics to demonstrate how it collects eDNA, the genetic trails left behind, mainly by animal species, that yield vital information about biodiversity in a given habitat. The resulting data – up to 15 million unique genetic sequences on a single slide – can be used to track how many of each species exist in a particular location, as well as other characteristics such as evolutionary diversity, i.e. how similar they are to each other.
To capture this information, the samples are collected via a large syringe, which first sucks up the water-borne eDNA then deposits it on the membrane of a patented filter, for bagging and processing in NatureMetrics’ on-site laboratory. The eDNA is contained in organic matter including skin, scales, saliva, mucus, and faeces. As well as water, the firm has developed kits and techniques to collect eDNA from soil and air, although the latter is still under development. The approach is similar to the water sampling technique, with air drawn over a filter which collects particles containing DNA. Research is ongoing into how fast eDNA degrades and travels through the air in different settings.
Alongside other inputs, such as geospatial data from satellites and bioacoustic signals from sensors, eDNA can help to monitor the impact of human activity on nature in general and biodiversity – the variety, complexity and interaction of living things – in particular. It can assist conservationists in understanding how species are reacting to preservation or rewilding efforts, but also enable companies to track their impacts, with a view to using or interacting with nature’s resources in a more sustainable manner.
Firms in the food system, for example, are using eDNA to understand the negative impact of their supply chains and implement nature-positive farming practices, such as reducing artificial fertiliser use.
This article, which draws on my ‘field trip’ to NatureMetrics’ Guildford offices[1], covers the reasons why measuring nature is becoming an urgent need (and a big business), as well as how the firm turns eDNA into actionable information, how their clients are using the information and where this might lead.
Measuring nature
When thinking about measuring nature, it’s worth remembering that the climate and nature crises are two sides of the same coin. Climate change is one of the five key drivers of biodiversity loss; while nature degradation destroys natural carbon sinks and the planet’s ability to handle rising temperatures.
It’s increasingly easy to measure the carbon footprint of a company or individual. Firms can use guidance based on the Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Protocol, while people can enter a few lifestyle metrics into a calculator to come up with a rough estimate for the emissions they generate.
Understanding your nature footprint is no less important but a good deal more complex.
The World Economic Forum (WEF) made headlines in 2020 by asserting that more than half the world’s GDP (US$44 trillion) was at risk from nature loss. For some, the conclusion of the 2021 Dasgupta review was more striking. Commissioned by UK chancellor George Osborne, Cambridge economist Sir Partha Dasgupta calculated the world would need to be at least 1.6 times larger to allow it to replenish its resources at the rate they were being used up by its human inhabitants.
The food and drink consumption needs of eight billion people are driving rainforest destruction in South America and South-east Asia, while also draining freshwater resources globally. Nature is on the backfoot, and one of the loudest alarm bells is coming from falling levels of biodiversity, prompting claims that the anthropocene era will see the sixth mass extinction.
In response, efforts to measure the state of nature – the impacts of the pressures we place on it, including changes in biodiversity levels – have assumed new levels of urgency. Scientists have always tracked these, but not with the scale and consistency needed by governments and businesses to prioritise and assess mitigating actions. Another driver is the need to put a monetary value on nature, in recognition that its contribution to financial profits and economic growth has until now been invisible and under-appreciated.
Attempts to develop decision-useful data, metrics and systems to measure and value nature are being accelerated by the prospect of new regulations. The Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF), adopted by 196 countries in 2022, encourages signatories to require corporates and financial institutions to report on their “risks, dependencies and impacts on biodiversity”, as part of efforts to restore and protect 30% of land and sea environments by 2030.
These reporting rules face many barriers. It is generally agreed that understanding human society’s relationship with the environment requires metrics to measure the pressures placed on nature, the responses undertaken to relieve those pressures, and the state of nature itself. A key problem is that there are many ways to measure the state of nature, and little agreement on how these should be leveraged to inform policy, investment and business decisions. A further issue is that consistent and reliable data is not currently readily available for many of the pressures, the impacts of which on natural environments is also location specific.
Nevertheless, more than 500 large corporates and financial institutions have signed up to a voluntary reporting framework that helps them assess and address their nature risks, impacts and dependencies. The recommendations of the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD) – designed explicitly to support the GBF - ask firms to set targets and metrics, which represent some of the largest pressures on nature, such as pollutants released into the soil, wastewater discharged, and levels of plastic pollution.
Having identified more than 3,000 existing nature-related metrics, the TNFD declined to specify a single state of nature metric, “as there is no single metric that will capture all relevant dimensions of changes to the state of nature and a consensus is still developing on the different measurement options for these indicators”.
The TNFD committed to working to achieve this consensus, and also produced a roadmap at last year’s COP16 summit in Colombia, intended to improve access to high quality nature-related data.
An industrial process
NatureMetrics is far from the only organisation collecting and analysing eDNA data, but – notwithstanding its robust academic credentials - it is one of the most advanced in terms of industrialising the process and seizing the commercial opportunity arising from its role in tracking biodiversity.
Founded in 2014, the firm has rapidly and pragmatically scaled up its processes and services to maximise the utility that can be gained by better understanding how species respond to change.
According to chief scientific officer Dr Juliet Jones, NatureMetrics’ the current generation of test kits for capturing water-borne eDNA were developed in response to the mobility restrictions imposed by the Covid-19 pandemic, enabling samples to still be collected at scale “without having to rely on qualified ecologists”.
A single sample might collect the eDNA of between up to 500 species, with the number of samples needed to assess biodiversity in a particular location varying by its size and other factors. That said, one sample can have quite a reach: a site approximately half a kilometre from Chessington Zoo picked up genetic material from all the animals kept in its open-air facilities.
The processing capabilities of NatureMetrics’ labs have been overhauled regularly to keep pace with demand, which means ongoing automation, and integration of artificial intelligence and machine learning. Increasing use of robots helps the firm process around 150,000 samples per year, partly by identifying hundreds of species in parallel, rather than sequentially. Automation has also enabled the firm to reduce processing costs, which it views as critical to profitable growth.
As well as the one I visited at the Guildford site, NatureMetrics operates a lab in Canada, and has access to a partner facility in Indonesia. This helps the firm serve approximately 600 clients operating in more than 110 countries.
Once the eDNA samples from a site have been extracted, purified, and identified, they are brought back together in a single test tube for final analysis and cross-referencing. As well as the names of the species, clients are also provided with information on their function within a given ecosystem, which is often of more practical value. Further contextual data is also provided to help clients understand the findings, depending on objectives agreed at the outset.
On the rare occasions the process throws up apparent anomaly – such as camel DNA identified in a Swedish sample – an explanation usually emerges (a camel farm down the road).
The firm is also looking at how technology might further improve the efficiency of its sample-taking processes in future, including use of hand-held devices and drones.
In January, NatureMetrics secured US$25 million of new funding with participation from both new and existing investors. The firm said the cash injection would be used to grow existing capabilities - referencing biodiversity health insights, artificial intelligence, and geospatial and bioacoustics data offerings – and increase its international reach.
In 2024, NatureMetrics was a finalist for the Earthshot Prize – founded in 2020 by HRH Prince William to recognise and reward solutions designed to regenerate the planet – shortlisted in the ‘protect and restore nature’ category.
Fungal functions
Until recently, conservation groups have been the mainstay of NatureMetrics’ customer base, typically seeking to monitor the positive impact of restoration projects, sometimes in order to secure greater funding. These have been integral to the firm’s ability to demonstrate that its approach is more cost-effective and decision-useful than the alternatives.
In 2021, NatureMetrics helped researchers from the University of Sussex to track the recovery of a kelp forest ecosystem after nearshore trawling was banned along a stretch of the south-east coast of England. eDNA sampling across multiple sites via NatureMetrics’ test kits reduced the average time to identify a species to 1.25 minutes from around eight hours using the traditional survey method of baited remote underwater video. In total, the eDNA-based sampling detected three times as many marine vertebrate species.
The firm has also developed metrics to track the progress of conservation projects over time, which help to identify problems and potential solutions. NatureMetrics has worked with Forestry England, the country’s largest land manager, to report on conservation efforts across 250,000 hectares of forest, building up a biodiversity dataset based on 659 soil samples taken from 21 sites.
NatureMetrics created several metrics including one to measure fungal functional diversity to better understand the roles of different fungi in the forest ecosystem. As well as identifying 5,000 fungi and 1,000 invertebrate species, analysis revealed the absence of ectomycorrhizal fungi in some new woodland sites, representing a gap in their ecosystem services. To restore balance, Forestry England decided to undertake soil translocations to reintroduce the missing species, as part of a programme that took different approaches on sites with higher species numbers versus those harbouring rare species.
Conservation groups now represent less than half of the firm’s client base, which has shifted toward corporates looking to assess nature risks, impacts and dependencies, either for regulatory purposes or as part of risk management or strategic planning efforts.
Last year, NatureMetrics started working with global consumer products group Unilever to support its regenerative agriculture programme, using eDNA sampling to monitor improvements in soil health, water quality and crop yields across four locations.
Data on changes in bacterial and fungal diversity in the soil and diversity of invertebrate species above ground were used alongside other biodiversity metrics to provide insights into the impact of new practices implemented along Unilever’s supply chain. Having established baseline data across thousands of hectares in Argentina, Canada, the UK and Europe, NatureMetrics will collect and interpret data over a five-year span, helping the firm and its implementation partners to understand which practices to roll out at a greater scale.
NatureMetrics is working with other firms in the food sector to help scale up the adoption of regenerative agriculture techniques, including a three-year initiative with Nestlé Purina PetCare, to explore the potential benefits of seaweed-based bio-stimulants on plant performance and nutrition, as well as crop safety and quality, via on-farm trials.
Nature risk = financial risk
Elsewhere, mining firms have used eDNA as part of the environmental impact assessments required for regulatory approval of new projects, also using it also to confirm return of sites to prior state once extraction is over. Similarly, firms operating in areas inhabited by protected species can use eDNA-based analysis to monitor and respond to changes in population or behaviour.
Client focus is increasingly centred on managing nature risk in order to offset financial risk. According to NatureMetrics CEO Dimple Patel, the firm’s core purpose is to accelerate the flow of finance to support nature preservation and regeneration.
She views nature as an investible asset, but argues that “data is needed to reduce ambiguity” about impacts and outcomes, and to build the trust within the financial community needed to make informed nature-positive decisions. Nature-related metrics should sit alongside EBITDA she states.
To this end, NatureMetrics is increasingly developing services that wrap around or augment eDNA, developing analysis-based services that use the raw data to support actions and investments.
For example, the firm recently launched Habitat Insights, a tool that helps organisations to quickly assess terrestrial habitats based on land cover, habitat connectivity and vegetation health metrics, as well as eDNA-based biodiversity data.
The overall aim, says Patel, is to help businesses to improve returns. “It’s about improving business resilience over three-to-five-year horizons”, she adds.
Rather than working with clients on individual projects or decisions, she hopes to shift NatureMetrics to a subscription-based model whereby the firm works with clients on a long-term basis, helping them to implement a business strategy that yields returns in terms of financial and natural capital.
The bigger picture
Demand for decision-useful nature metrics and data continues apace. The Nature Positive Initiative (NPI) has picked up the gauntlet thrown down by the TNFD, by proposing a streamlined system of indicators and metrics to help firms assess and track the state of nature in any given site or location.
Backed by a wide range of scientific and conservation organisations, the NPI has sought to straddle the challenges of useability and credibility by developing a framework that focuses on quantifying the extent and condition of an ecosystem alongside species extinction risk.
As announced last month, more than 30 large firms and financial institutions have agreed to pilot the state of nature metrics, providing the NPI with valuable feedback on their real-world application, as well as the availability of data to populate the metrics.
This road-testing exercise is also seen as an important step toward the incorporation of the metrics not only into the TNFD’s disclosure framework, but also other standards, use cases and, in due course, regulatory requirements.
Companies’ efforts to understand nature risks are driven as much by investment as regulatory considerations. In its latest climate and nature report, the €1-trillion-plus Norwegian sovereign wealth fund emphasised the importance of monitoring the impact of its investment on both these twin environmental risks.
The fund confirmed it was using geospatial data to identify where portfolio companies’ operations intersected with environmentally sensitive areas as well as where holdings were exposed to “high biodiversity regions” or areas under significant water stress.
Further, it made clear to those portfolio firms that they should be transparent about location-specific risks and impacts.
“We expect companies to disclose detailed plans for reducing their emissions over time and implement robust practices to eliminate deforestation and protect biodiversity,” warned Carine Smith Ihenacho, the fund’s chief governance and compliance officer.
Every new project adds to NatureMetrics’ dataset. The firm reckons it has processed enough samples to form the basis of a ‘biodiversity data layer’ covering 10% of the globe.
Its reach continues to expand as the firm augments its eDNA database with geospatial and bioacoustic data to provide more context on individual locations, partnering also with firms that have expertise in areas such as ocean data, while pushing its own horizons.
NatureMetrics is also using ecosystem health metrics and AI-based modelling to support and inform clients’ risk assessments and capital allocation decisions.
In combination, these capabilities could also help firms map out how certain variables, such as climate change or water usage, could impact all or specific species in particular locations over a five- or even ten-year period.
There may remain many ways to quantify society’s impact on nature, in damp conditions or arid, but one firm seems to have most of them covered.
[1] Arranged by BNP Paribas Asset Management, which owns a minority stake in NatureMetrics, through its Solar Impulse Venture Fund.