ECOMINE, Influence of mining massifs on the evolution of coastal microbial communities: eDNA as a tool for detecting environmental changes

This study aims to better understand how both natural and human-induced ultramafic inputs shape marine coastal ecosystems. Specifically, it focuses on the diversity of microbial communities (microeukaryotes) using modern and ancient environmental DNA (eDNA) amplicon sequencing from coastal sediments in New Caledonia. These sediments are influenced by fluvial inputs that vary according to catchment geology and mining activity.

The first phase of the ECOMINE project involved collecting surface sediment samples (0–3 cm) during March–April 2022. This phase examined how different types of riverine inputs affect coastal benthic microbial communities.

The second phase involved collecting a 2.3 m sediment core in April 2022. Ancient sedimentary DNA preserved in this core, spanning from the pre-mining period to the present, will be analyzed to reconstruct temporal changes in microeukaryote communities over time.