Adventive: introduced/not native and not yet well established
Arthropod: invertebrate animals with an exoskeleton, a segmented body, and paired jointed appendages (see: What are Arthropods?)
Bioinformatics: The use of computational tools and methods to analyze and interpret biological data, such as DNA sequences.
Biosecurity: measures aimed at preventing the introduction and/or spread of harmful organisms (e.g. viruses, bacteria, etc.) to animals and plants in order to minimize the risk of transmission of infectious disease. In agriculture, these measures are aimed at protecting food crops and livestock from pests, introduced nuisance species, and other organisms not conducive to the welfare of the human population.
eDNA (Environmental DNA): nuclear or mitochondrial DNA that is released from an organism into the environment. Sources of eDNA include secreted feces, mucous, and gametes; shed skin and hair; and carcasses. eDNA can be detected in cellular or extracellular (dissolved DNA) form
Endemic species: species that exist only in one geographic region and are found no where else in the world
Introduced species: also: Non-indigenous species, adventive species; a species living outside its native distributional range, which has arrived there by human activity, directly or indirectly, and either deliberately or accidentally
Introduced nuisance species: a term we use instead of “invasive species” (see: Inclusive Language); introduced species which cause damage, ecological or economic harm in its new environment
Metabarcoding: a type of NGS – barcoding of DNA/RNA (or eDNA/eRNA) in a manner that allows for the simultaneous identification of many taxa within the same sample. The main difference between barcoding and metabarcoding is that metabarcoding does not focus on one specific organism, but instead aims to determine species composition within a sample
Native species: a species indigenous to a given region or ecosystem whose presence in that region is the result of only local natural evolution (though often popularised as “with no human intervention”)
Next Generation Sequencing (NGS): also called Massive parallel sequencing; large-scale DNA sequencing technology that allows for querying the entire genome (whole genome)
PCR (Polymerase Chain Reaction): A laboratory technique used to rapidly make millions to billions of copies (complete or partial) of a specific DNA sample, allowing scientists to take a very small sample of DNA and amplify it (or a part of it) to a large enough amount to study in detail, often used in eDNA analyses.