
20 Jun DNA Barcoding
Idea Owner: Elles Feikens
CSI-North Sea
All life leaves traces in the water, including DNA. By measuring DNA in water samples and comparing this with a reference database, it is possible to demonstrate the presence or absence of marine life. Governments are obliged to monitor water quality, invasive species, and to execute environmental impact assessments. Especially at sea this process is time consuming and expensive and done with low frequency. We believe that analyzing environmental DNA revolutionizes this process and allow more temporal replication with increased accuracy. This method can be used for:
- Impact assessments of offshore activities
- Monitoring water quality and marine life
- Measure direct impact of pollution
- Achieve major scientific breakthroughs on the temporal dynamics of marine biodiversity