iBOL Europe – iBOL Europe

DNA barcoding of invertebrates inhabiting subterranean environments – the case of Western Carpathian epikarst

iBOL Europe — Wed, 21 Feb 2024 12:10:30 +0000

Guest blog by Aleksandra Jablonska and Michał Grabowski

The world is inhabited by a huge diversity of invertebrate species, some of which remain particularly understudied. The reasons for this depend, among other things, on species habitats and their accessibility for researchers. Subterranean ecosystems contain some of the least accessible and heavily understudied species. A case in point are those species occupying epikarst – narrow crevices in limestone rock layers that are often filled with water. Using DNA barcoding, a team of Slovak, Polish and Czech researchers studied the diversity of invertebrates in these mysterious habitats within the Carpathian biodiversity hotspot.

Field work in the Demänovská Cave System

A year-long field work campaign was conducted in four caves of the Demänovská Cave System in the Western Carpathians. This cave system, the longest to be discovered in the Carpathian Arch, stretches over 40 kilometres along the Demänovská Valley, on the northern side of the Low Tatra Mountains in Slovakia. Due to the challenge of conducting fieldwork in this underground location, the team included also qualified speleologists from the Slovak Cave Administration. To investigate the epikarst biota, monthly samples were collected by filtering the water seeping from the fissures in the cave ceilings.

A total of 1630 individuals of freshwater, amphibiotic and terrestrial fauna were collected, representing stygobionts, stygophiles and stygoxenes from such taxonomic groups as Nematoda, Annelida and Arthropoda (including Crustacea, Arachnida and Insecta). First, all the specimens were morphologically examined under stereomicroscope and divided into 36 morphospecies, belonging to six invertebrate classes. Then, 924 individuals representing all the morphospecies were identified by DNA barcoding using the standard COI marker. We successfully obtained 784 barcodes for most of the distinguished morphospecies. The highest number of barcodes was generated for Copepoda – 536, and Collembola – 172. The COI barcoding failed in the case of Nematoda.

Examples of the cave fauna collected

The outcome of this study was a first attempt to build a DNA barcode library for the Carpathian, and simultaneously European, epikarst invertebrates. The resulting sequences were deposited in BOLD, where they were ascribed to 60 Barcode Index Numbers (BINs). It suggests presence of cryptic diversity in the collected species, including yet undescribed taxa. As many as 43 of the designed BINs were unique, thus new to BOLD. The majority of unique BINs contained subterranean species. This study greatly contributed to widening our knowledge of the biodiversity and biogeography of understudied subterranean habitats.

The results of the study of Carpathian epikarst were published in Ecohydrology & Hydrobiology, DOI: 10.1016/j.ecohyd.2023.07.005

February 26th: Webinar on Development of curated reference libraries

iBOL Europe — Mon, 12 Feb 2024 16:12:17 +0000

Development of curated DNA-barcode reference libraries for species in Europe

When? February 26th from 14.30-16.00h CET

How to join? Join our community though this form to receive your invitation

DNA barcode reference libraries underpin effective biodiversity monitoring. Great progress has been made in their development but a number of conceptual and practical challenges remain.

Therefore we organise this online panel discussion where expert panellists from the European and Canadian DNA barcoding communities will discuss these issues and share their insights and experiences on the state-of-the-art for DNA barcode reference libraries.

Join the discussion on the current state and future of DNA-barcoding reference libraries for European species! Do you have a question for the panel already in mind? You can let us know through our Contact form.

We are looking forward to seeing you at the event!

Survey about Education on Biodiversity Genomics in Europe: opportunities & gaps

iBOL Europe — Tue, 06 Feb 2024 10:01:53 +0000

Facilitating knowledge sharing & supporting training of the new generation of researchers working in the field of Biodiversity Genomics – that is one of the main missions of iBOL Europe.

However, to be able to provide relevant education opportunities to our members, we first need to understand the current landscape of existing training courses and identify areas which can be improved. Therefore, we prepared a survey which aims to collect information about education and training related to Biodiversity Genomics in Europe. The results will support the iBOL Europe secretariat in the development of training opportunities tailored to the needs of our community.

Please help us collect relevant information with a good representation of European countries and fill out this survey before February 29th.

If you have any questions or suggestions on this topic, please contact us at: info@iboleurope.org

January community meeting highlights

iBOL Europe — Sat, 03 Feb 2024 13:12:07 +0000

On January 29th, we held the last edition of our bi-monthly community meetings. We heard great talks about training activities within the Biodiversity Genomics Europe project, importance of molecular methods standardization, and updates from the Austrian Barcode of Life and the eDNAqua-plan project.

Here we bring you highlights from the meeting and further interesting information:

We announced the name change of our community to ‘iBOL Europe’ together with the launch of our new website.
Save the date! The first iBOL Europe webinar will be held on February 26th, 14.30-16.00h CET and will feature a panel discussion on development of curated DNA-barcode reference libraries. Details on the event coming soon!
iBOL Europe aims to develop training opportunities related to biodiversity genomics for our community. Therefore, we want to map relevant existing education in Europe. Please help us by filling in this survey
If you are interested in international standards on molecular methods, get in touch with www.iESTF.global
Further useful links:

Would you like to present your work or suggest a topic for the iBOL Europe bi-monthly community meetings? Let us know by email: info@iboleurope.org

We are looking forward to seeing you at the next meeting on March 25th.

Welcome to iBOL Europe!

iBOL Europe — Mon, 29 Jan 2024 13:30:19 +0000

The first continent regional level node of iBOL

BIOSCAN Europe was established in 2021 by the barcoding community in recognition of the growth of DNA barcoding activity across Europe. This new network – aligned with the global iBOL consortium – was considered highly relevant due to the geographic proximity of many European nations, overlapping national species inventories, and shared opportunities for European Commission funding. It was envisaged that BIOSCAN Europe would help to facilitate the international cohesion required to address one of the most pressing challenges of our time: biodiversity loss.

The first years of BIOSCAN Europe involved exploring the European barcoding landscape and culminated in the decision to establish a European node of iBOL. In recognition of this, BIOSCAN Europe has been rebranded as iBOL Europe to clarify our role in amplifying the global iBOL vision of establishing an Earth observation system for biodiversity. We are currently developing an organisation and governance structure aligned with iBOL and the needs of the European DNA barcoding community.

iBOL Europe’s vision is to support the DNA barcoding communities of European nations to conduct impactful DNA-based biomonitoring to sustain and improve planetary biodiversity. To help realise this vision, we carried out a survey in 2023 to identify the most important functions of iBOL Europe from the perspective of the European DNA barcoding community. The top five of these functions have been taken as a starting point to guide our efforts over the coming year:

Supporting the completion of DNA-barcode reference libraries of European species.

Maintaining a website as a DNA-barcoding communication and resource portal.

Promoting the development of standard protocols and workflows for DNA barcoding.

Aiding the establishment of new iBOL national nodes in European countries.

Coordinating collaborative funding applications at the European network level.

Do you have suggestions for our activities or the new website? Don’t hesitate to let us know at: info@iboleurope.org

Open Call – Biodiversity Genomics Europe – BIOSCAN

iBOL Europe — Mon, 29 Jan 2024 13:25:27 +0000

A funding call is open through the barcoding (BIOSCAN) stream of Biodiversity Genomics Europe for the wider European research community to support the project’s mission. It is aimed at researchers interested in contributing to the construction of DNA barcode reference libraries for species in Europe.

Up to 50,000euros funding. Application deadline January 31st 2024.

For more information see:

https://biodiversitygenomics.eu/2023/11/27/open-call-biodiversity-genomics-europe-ibol-europe/

February 26th: Webinar on Development of curated reference libraries

iBOL Europe — Sat, 27 Jan 2024 15:11:19 +0000

Save the Date for the iBOL Europe webinar & panel discussion:

Development of curated DNA-barcode reference libraries for species in Europe

When? February 26th from 14.30-16.00h CET

How to join? Join our community though this form to receive your invitation

DNA barcode reference libraries underpin effective biodiversity monitoring. Great progress has been made in their development but a number of conceptual and practical challenges remain.

Expert panellists from the European and Canadian DNA barcoding communities will discuss these issues and share their insights and experiences on the state-of-the-art for DNA barcode reference libraries.

Join the discussion on the current state and future of DNA-barcoding reference libraries for European species!

Call for Sessions for the iBOL conference 2024 is now open!

iBOL Europe — Thu, 25 Jan 2024 18:40:12 +0000

The 9th International Barcode of Life conference will take place in Belém, Brazil on September 3-6th, 2024.

Find all the important information here: dnabarcodingconference.com/

You can propose parallel sessions, workshops, panel discussions, or other events you have in mind through this form: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAI

We are looking forward to meeting you there!