"discern traces of" is correct and usable in written English.
For example, you can use this phrase to indicate that you were able to identify the existence of something that has been hidden or otherwise obscured. For example, "I was able to discern traces of the vandal's presence in the alleyway."
He's done it again and this time I can discern traces of the yellow on me.
Once you read him, you may discern traces of his influence everywhere (in a book like Teju Cole's "Open City," for example) and may find yourself collecting thoughts and perceptions that qualify as Sebaldian.
In their experiments, Dr Ifa and his team identified minute traces of drugs, such as cocaine and marijuana, as well as explosives.Moreover, besides indicating what substances had been deposited on the skin of the person who left the print, DESI can discern traces of substances that have been secreted through it.
While it is possible to discern traces of the break-up of Gondwana in clades that are old enough, it will generally be difficult to be confident in continental movement as the prime cause of geographic disjunctions.
In his writings there can be discerned traces of every wind of doctrine of the early 19th century.
This "research" continues among internet fringe groups, who discern the traces of ghosts in the machine.
Today, Melville's copy of Thomas Beale's "Natural History of the Sperm Whale," which he read while composing "Moby-Dick," is laid out like the Shroud of Turin in the conservation laboratory of the Fogg Art Museum under an infrared camera capable of discerning microscopic traces of graphite left behind by the wielder of the eraser -- who, some think, may have been Melville himself.
Previously, researchers examining radiological images of his teeth discerned no trace of cavities or other dental problems.
All the same, Wilson suggests in this shimmering and rather wonderful biography, as the elderly queen smiled and inclined her head to the ecstatic crowd, it was still possible to discern in that dumpling form traces of all the earlier versions of herself still buried deep inside.
And then, as in Bach's St. John Passion, in which the lamentation that "It is accomplished" is followed by strings of Resurrection, it will become possible once again to discern in France's politics the traces of French history – and the path to France's future.
The team managed to discern even fainter swirls, called AF modes: traces of deflatons (pronounced DEF-luh-tons) that brought the previous incarnation of our universe crashing down.
