Nicholas Iacaruso
Postdoctoral Researcher
Washington State University
United States Geologic Survey
I’m a postdoc at Washington State University and the Pacific Northwest eDNA Laboratory at the USGS. In 2026, I graduated with a PhD from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences. My research focuses on how genetics-based tools can improve conservation. I am particularly interested in combining pop-gen theory with environmental DNA (eDNA) methods to go beyond traditional presence/absence and start estimating metrics, such as abundance, location, and genetic diversity.
Research Interests
I am firstly, a conservation geneticist. I enjoy using eDNA methods (e.g. qPCR, metabarcoding) and other genomics tools (e.g. eRNA, Rad-Seq) to improve conservation. While I'm interested in a variety of taxa and environments, I've always had a passion for aquatic species, especially marine fish and mammals.
Within the field of eDNA, I have two main interests. The first is the spatio-temporal variability of the eDNA signal. eDNA is not like traditional survey methods: the amount produces changes by the hour, it can last in the environment for a long time, and it can be transported multiple kilometers from where it originated. I'm particularly interested in understanding the signal of eDNA and designing sampling schemes that maximize the chance of detecting that signal.
My second interest lies in incorporating populaton-genetic theory with eDNA methods. Typically, eDNA metabarcoding is used in a presence-absence context to estimate community composition. However, eDNA metabarcoding contains much more than taxonomic identities. The sequences contain haplotypic diversity information which can be used to obtain noninvasive estimates of species abundance and genetic diversity. My research sits at both pioneering new laboratory and bioinformatic methods to obtain these estimates and applying eDNA methods to conservation.
Iacaruso, N. J., Reves, O. P., Merkelz, S. J., Waldrep, C. L., & Davis, M. A. (2026). A systematic review evaluating the performance of eDNA methods relative to conventional methods for biodiversity monitoring. Ecography, 2026, e07952.
Butler, S. E., Iacaruso, N. J., Davis, M. A., Woiak, Z., & Parkos III, J. J. (2025). Assessing the efficacy of a quantitative PCR screening procedure for detecting and quantifying the magnitude of invasive carp reproductive events. North American Journal of Fisheries Management, vqaf066. https://doi.org/10.1093/najfmt/vqaf066