This $782,754 federal Project Grant award from the National Science Foundation's Biological Sciences program (CFDA 47.074) supports a collaborative research effort to study the environmental factors influencing the fate and transport of environmental DNA (eDNA) in U.S. streams, particularly those within the National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON). The project, titled "DISTANCE: Determining Instream Transport of eDNA Across NEON Sites at the Continental Scale," will leverage NEON infrastructure to conduct replicated eDNA spiraling experiments at NEON stream sites. The research aims to better understand the degradation, deposition, and downstream transport of eDNA, which is a revolutionary approach for measuring freshwater biodiversity. As part of the broader impacts, the project will expand the infrastructure of the NSF-funded EMERGE training program to provide educational opportunities in bioinformatics and eDNA data analysis for underrepresented groups in freshwater science. The project is led by the University of North Texas and is expected to run from September 1, 2024, to August 31, 2029.