Human and domesticated animal environmental DNA as bioassays of the Anthropocene

Measuring human and domestic animal eDNA compared with that of resident wildlife may give insight into the human environmental footprint

Human action famously transforms the Earth and its biosphere and geosphere.1 While most literature consider plowing, burning, debris, and other products and by-products of our activities, direct effects of changing human biomass might merit further study. Humans are now the dominant terrestrial vertebrate, composing about 1/3 of land vertebrate biomass, which translates to 1/10 of total vertebrate biomass.2 The other terrestrial 2/3 consists nearly entirely of livestock kept by humans for food. Non-domesticated land vertebrates, from shrews to elephants to swallows, form a mere 3%.