Special ECSA 58 - EMECS 13 session “Application of DNA-metabarcoding for ecosystem health assessment
29 September 2021 - Published by Nele Jacobs
The ECSA 58 - EMECS 13 conference‘Estuaries and coastal seas in the Anthropocene – Structure, functions, services and management’was held online from 6 to 9 September 2021.One of GEANS’ leading scientists - Dr Magdalini Christodoulou- successfully chaired the special session during which four presentations were given and a constructive discussion took place afterwards with people joining online from various countries.
The session included two GEANS presentations:
- Dr Christodoulou with “A reliable DNA barcode reference library for benthic invertebrates, crucial for the biomonitoring of the North Sea”. This presentation gave an update on the progress of the DNA reference library developed in WP3 of GEANS.
- PhD student Van den Bulcke gave an interesting talk entitled “Environmental impact assessment 2.0: genetic identification as a faster and cheaper method for marine environmental monitoring”, in which the first results of WP5 of GEANS were presented.
Drs Van den Bulcke: ““During the session discussion, there was a lot of interest in the GEANS project, regarding both the pilot project and the reference database. That shows that GEANS is filling the gaps that currently exist in the scientific community. The high level of interaction regarding the use of metabarcoding for feeding biotic indices, gives me the feeling that there is a lot of support for implementing this genetic method in environmental impact assessments.”