Environmental DNA metabarcoding to investigate historic changes in biodiversity

International audiencePaleoenvironmental studies provides crucial long-term data to study both anthropogenic disturbance and/or climate changes, and their effects on the environment. We used a multi-disciplinary approach to reconstruct past landscapes in Lake Anterne watershed (Haute-Savoie, French Alps) over the Holocene. In a previous study, DNA metabarcoding approach was carried out to evidence the important role of livestock farming on erosion processes (Giguet-Covex et al. submitted). Here, we focus on impact of climate changes and human activities on plant cover. DNA extracted from lacustrine archives was amplified with universal primers for plants and sequenced using high-throughput sequencing. For each period, we selected ecologically informative taxa (i.e. taxa specific of particular conditions : plant community, soils, land-use…) in the aim to obtain an image of the environment at this time. These results combined with previously obtained geochemical and sedimentological approaches allowed to reconstruct past landscapes and to determine drivers of changes