Ongoing – iBOL Europe

GrBOL – Greek Barcode of Life

Kasia Fantoni — Wed, 08 Oct 2025 13:44:43 +0000

Website
Geographical region(s): Greece and surrounding regions
Ecosystem(s) coverage: Freshwater, Marine, Terrestrial
Taxonomic group(s): Arthropods (insects), Arthropods (non-insects), Fungi and Lichens, Plants
Host institute(s): Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
Timespan: 2024 – ongoing
Description: GrBOL is a national network of various biodiversity institutions in Greece, coordinated by the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. GrBOL partners provide their professional taxonomic expertise and existing infrastructure (collections/biobanks, databases, bioinformatics platforms and laboratories) for the comprehensive collection, recording, description and sequencing of animal, plant and fungal species in Greece. The sequences and metadata generated within GrBOL will be integrated into the global barcode reference database “BOLD”.

PolBOL – Polish Barcode of Life

Gabriela Dankova — Fri, 31 May 2024 12:08:23 +0000

Website
Geographical region(s): Poland, Mediterranean Basin, Balkan Peninsula, Carpathian Arch
Ecosystem coverage: Freshwater, Marine, Terrestrial
Taxonomic group(s): Arthropods, Chordates, Other metazoa
Host institute(s): Department of Invertebrate Zoology & Hydrobiology, Faculty of Biology & Environmental Protection, University of Lodz
Time span: Ongoing
Description: PoLBOL is a national iBOL-BIOSCAN node and an initiative coordinated at UniLodz, aiming to (i) document the biodiversity in Poland at a molecular level and provide reliable, comprehensive DNA barcode libraries for biomonitoring activities, (ii) improve, at an international scale, the DNA barcode libraries and document biodiversity in understudied European biodiversity hotspots (e.g. Carpathian Arch, Balkan Peninsula, Mediterranean Basin), (ii) promote DNA (meta)barcoding as a handy tool in biodiversity studies and conservation activities.

Italian National Biodiversity Future Center NBFC

Gabriela Dankova — Sun, 24 Mar 2024 13:28:08 +0000

Website
Geographical region(s): Italy
Ecosystem coverage: Freshwater, Marine, Terrestrial
Taxonomic group(s): All
Institute(s): Bringing together over 1,500 researchers belonging to 48 partner organisations (Universities and Research institutes) working on biodiversity topics.
Time span: Ongoing
Description: Builds a genetic/genomic platform that will also include DNA barcoding data from all the flora and fauna of Italy.

TurkBOL – Turkish Barcode of Life

iBOL Europe — Mon, 29 Jan 2024 13:08:56 +0000

Website
Geographical region(s): Turkey
Ecosystem coverage: Freshwater, Marine, Terrestrial
Taxonomic group(s): Arthropods (insects), Arthropods (non insects), Chordates, Plants, Fungi & lichens, Other metazoa
Host institute(s): Ankara University (Turkey)
Time span: Ongoing
Description: DNA barcoding and eDNA metabarcoding of terrestrial and aquatic species from microorganisms to mammals.

TETTRIS

iBOL Europe — Mon, 29 Jan 2024 13:08:55 +0000

Website
Geographical region(s): Trans boundary
Ecosystem coverage: Freshwater, Marine, Terrestrial
Taxonomic group(s): Arthropods (insects), Arthropods (non insects), Chordates, Plants, Fungi & lichens, Other metazoa, Protista, Others
Host institute(s): CETAF
Time span: Ongoing
Description: Provision of new mechanisms and tools to transfer taxonomic fundamental knowledge to other societal and scientific actors.

Taxonomy and systematics of non-biting midges (Diptera: Chironomidae)

iBOL Europe — Mon, 29 Jan 2024 13:08:54 +0000

No Website
Geographical region(s): Norway, Trans boundary
Ecosystem coverage: Freshwater, Marine, Terrestrial
Taxonomic group(s): Arthropods (insects)
Host institute(s): NTNU University Museum (Norway)
Time span: Ongoing
Description: Using a variety of molecular markers, including DNA barcodes, we investigate species delimitation, diversity and evolutionary relationships in chironomids.

Spot the Jellyfish

iBOL Europe — Mon, 29 Jan 2024 13:08:52 +0000

Website
Geographical region(s): Malta
Ecosystem coverage: Freshwater, Marine
Taxonomic group(s): Arthropods (non insects), Chordates, Others
Host institute(s): University of Malta (Malta)
Time span: Ongoing
Description: The IOIKIDS Spot the Jellyfish initiative aims to increase awareness, especially among the younger generations, about the local diversity of jellyfish species, through a hands-on exercise involving the reporting of sightings of jellyfish that often swarm close to our shores and beaches. In so doing the initiative would be supplying useful data for local marine scientists and tourist authorities, through a citizen science approach… and aid to avoid those stinging jellies!

Spot the Alien

iBOL Europe — Mon, 29 Jan 2024 13:08:51 +0000

Website
Geographical region(s): Malta
Ecosystem coverage: Freshwater, Marine
Taxonomic group(s): Arthropods (non insects), Chordates, Others
Host institute(s): University of Malta (Malta)
Time span: Ongoing
Description: The Spot the Alien citizen science campaign was launched in 2019 and is the third national citizen science campaign coordinated by Prof. Alan Deidun, Dr. Adam Gauci, Mr. Johann Galdies and Mr. Martin Galea De Giovanni. It aims to promote the submission of reports of Non-Indigenous Species (NIS), commonly known as ‘alien species’, spotted within Maltese waters by citizen scientists. Whilst the Spot the Alien Fish campaign (launched in 2017) focuses on alien fish species, the Spot the Alien campaign focuses on all other alien species. This campaign is supported financially by the International Ocean Institute (IOI) through annual grants and is providing an unparalleled contribution to Malta’s international alien species monitoring obligations as well as alien species scientific monitoring efforts.

SpainBOL – Spanish Barcode of Life Network and the The Canary Island Barcode consortium

iBOL Europe — Mon, 29 Jan 2024 13:08:50 +0000

No Website
Geographical region(s): Macaronesia
Ecosystem coverage: Terrestrial
Taxonomic group(s): Arthropods (insects), Arthropods (non insects), Plants
Host institute(s): The Canary Island Barcode consortium (Spain)
Time span: Ongoing
Description: Spain only recently associated to the iBOL consortium, and is represented by the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC). As such, the national node itself has not been formalised. Coordination within the node involves four Canary Island-based CSIC researchers. Drs Paula Arribas and Carmelo Andújar develop and implement metabarcoding approaches and HTS tools for the analysis of arthropod diversity within soils. Dr Jairo Patiño applies HTS approaches for multi-locus barcoding of plant species. Prof. Brent Emerson has a specific interest in arthropod diversity and the integration of barcode data with other data sources (e.g. species trait, distribution, environment, genomic, phylogenetic) for ecological and evolutionary understanding. To this end he is driving a barcode reference library initiative for the arthropods of the Canary Islands. Our focus will be to develop the Spanish node, and explore opportunities for implementation. The Canary Island Barcode consortium currently comprises researchers from two Canary Island-based institutes, the Institute of Natural Products and Agrobiology (IPNA) of the Spanish National Research Council, and the University of La Laguna. The primary activities of the consortium are the development of a barcode reference library for the arthropods of the Canary Islands, and the development and implementation of metabarcoding protocols for arthropods.

Portugal Barcode of Life

iBOL Europe — Mon, 29 Jan 2024 13:08:49 +0000

Website
Geographical region(s): North East Atlantic Ocean Mediterranean Sea Macaronesia Iberian Peninsula
Ecosystem coverage: Marine
Taxonomic group(s): Arthropods (non insects), Chordates, Other metazoa
Host institute(s): University of Minho (Portugal)
Time span: Ongoing
Description: Building DNA barcode reference libraries for marine life (mostly fish, crustaceans, annelids and molluscs).