Integrating Environmental DNA ( eDNA ) Approaches to Enhance Fisheries Advisories Through Marine Food Web Reconstruction: Opportunities and Challeng

ABSTRACT

Environmental DNA (eDNA) transforms marine ecological research through non‐invasive assessment of ecosystem structure with higher taxonomic resolution. This study explores the potential of eDNA metabarcoding to enhance fisheries advisories through food web reconstruction, bridging ecological insights with ecosystem‐based fisheries management. This review elucidates the concepts of eDNA and explores its applications in food web studies and Potential Fishing Zone (PFZ) dynamics. Additionally, the review presents a bibliometric analysis of global publications related to eDNA, food web, and marine fishes, scrutinizing the co‐occurrence of these keywords in publications, highlighting the need to integrate eDNA studies to accurately derive insights into trophic structure and fisheries potential. The review identifies key gaps, challenges, and future opportunities of this technology toward the blue economy. Despite the considerable potential identified, key limitations include DNA degradation and dilution in the marine environment, along with uncertainties in long‐term predictions, posing challenges to its application in fisheries advisories. However, continued advances in sampling techniques and high‐frequency, spatiotemporally resolved observations are expected to help overcome these limitations and facilitate the effective integration of eDNA into fisheries advisory research.