Líffræðifélag Íslands - biologia.is
Líffræðiráðstefnan 2025
Erindi/veggspjald / Talk/poster V68
Höfundar / Authors: Ayesha Zulfiqar (1), Snæbjörn Pálsson (2), Christophe S. Pampoulie (3)
Starfsvettvangur / Affiliations: Haskoli Islands (1)
Kynnir / Presenter: Ayesha Zulfiqar
The open ocean ecosystem accounts for half of the earth’s surface, so the biodiversity of this ecosystem underpins many services as well as many important global ecosystem processes. But still, there is a challenge in measuring and monitoring the biodiversity as well as trends of different species. Loss of biodiversity is an important environmental concern. The genetic material taken from environmental samples is known as environmental DNA, or eDNA. It can be used to infer species presence/absence and contribute to measuring relative species density and abundance (metabarcoding). This research is focused on using environmental DNA or eDNA metabarcoding to analyze biodiversity across 3 different regions, i.e., Reykjanes Ridge, Icelandic Basin, and Transect from Irminger sea to Iceland basin. The aim is to analyze the species composition, spatial and temporal variations as well as influence of environmental factors on biodiversity. Water samples were collected from these regions and are processed using Mifish primers as well as COI primers to identify vertebrates. The data is sequenced by Novogene and analysis of the data will be performed. The biodiversity of these regions will be compared, that will help in fisheries management and the conservation policies. This research is conducted as part of BioProtect project, focusing on monitoring biodiversity in marine ecosystems.