Details

Speaker:
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Sarah Bourlat, Univ. Göttburg, Sweden

Environmental genomics, the identification of DNA from environmental samples, has revolutionized the way we monitor biodiversity in aquatic environments. Here I will discuss targeted approaches using environmental DNA (eDNA) and whole community approaches using metabarcoding, where DNA barcodes are amplified from bulk samples, allowing us to describe whole communities living in soil, sediments or water. I will use two examples from my own research, one investigating trophic interactions, i.e. who eats whom, where prey items are identified in the gut contents of the three spined stickelback (G. aculeatus) in the Baltic Sea, and another describing the microscopic communities of eukaryotes (meiofauna) living in sediments on the Swedish west coast.