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Scaling Biodiversity Monitoring with Airborne eDNA in Agricultural Landscapes
Across Switzerland and Europe, biodiversity is disappearing faster than science can measure it. Agricultural landscapes — which make up more than one-third of the Swiss territory — are among the most affected. Intensive management, monoculture, and chemical inputs have eroded the diversity of species that once made these ecosystems resilient. Yet, paradoxically, agriculture depends on that same biodiversity for pollination, pest control, soil fertility, and climate stability.
Despite decades of effort, today’s biodiversity monitoring systems still struggle to capture the full picture. Manual fieldwork and taxonomic surveys are slow, costly, and limited to a few well-known species groups. Even Switzerland’s national biodiversity monitoring programs, though among the most advanced in the world, revisit most sites only every five years — leaving major ecological shifts unseen and unaddressed.
To protect biodiversity effectively, we must move from fragmented observation to continuous ecological intelligence — from labor-intensive surveys to automated, multi-species monitoring capable of detecting changes as they happen.
Agricultural landscapes monitored across two seasons
DNAir, an ETH Zurich spin-off, has developed a groundbreaking technology that captures environmental DNA (eDNA) directly from the air — transforming how we observe life on land. Each organism continuously emits microscopic traces of genetic material into its surroundings. By collecting and sequencing these particles, scientists can identify the species living in an area — plants, fungi, insects, even vertebrates — without needing to see or capture them.
The DNAir project, led by ETH Zurich’s Ecosystems and Landscape Evolution Group under Prof. Loïc Pellissier, in collaboration with DNAir AG and the Swiss Federal Office for the Environment (BAFU), aims to validate this technology in real agricultural conditions. Airborne eDNA samples will be collected at ten test sites across Switzerland and compared with traditional monitoring data from the national ALL-EMA program, as well as surface-based eDNA collected through standardized leaf swabbing.
This scientific validation will determine how accurately airborne eDNA reflects on-the-ground biodiversity and how it complements other methods. The dual approach — air sampling and surface swabbing — will allow researchers to cross-check results across seasons and taxa, including plants, fungi, insects, and vertebrates. Laboratory analysis, metabarcoding, and bioinformatics at ETH will then translate these genetic traces into a detailed, multi-species map of life in the landscape.
By combining autonomous technology, artificial intelligence, and genomic sequencing, the DNAir project turns biodiversity monitoring into a scalable, real-time system — one capable of detecting not only ecological diversity but also emerging pests and pathogens, offering new tools for both science and sustainable agriculture.
“Biodiversity intelligence must evolve from snapshots to continuous sensing — from isolated observations to systemic awareness.”
DNAir represents a new era of biodiversity science — one where data on species, habitats, and ecosystem changes flow continuously and automatically from the environment. By supporting this ETH-led validation, Fondation Valery contributes to a transformative step toward national-scale, high-resolution biodiversity intelligence.
If successful, the project will establish airborne eDNA as a cornerstone of Switzerland’s biodiversity monitoring strategy, strengthening national and international research networks, informing environmental policy, and positioning the country as a global leader in applied ecological innovation.
In doing so, it redefines what monitoring means: no longer a periodic survey, but a living, breathing system of observation — one that listens to the air itself to understand the health of our ecosystems.
