TO ILLUMINATE BIODIVERSITY BY DEVELOPING GLOBALLY ACCESSIBLE, DNA-BASED SYSTEMS FOR THE DISCOVERY AND IDENTIFICATION OF ALL MULTICELLULAR LIFE.

This work has urgency if we are to effectively address biodiversity loss on our planet

BIOSCAN Germany

BIOSCAN Germany will greatly advance our understanding of biodiversity by addressing questions in three major fields of biodiversity research: species discovery, species dynamics and species interactions, in Germany, Europe and selected countries on other continents.

Species discovery: Complementation of the barcoding reference library

Germany: 300,000 barcodes, in particular “dark taxa” like Diptera and parasitoid Hymenoptera
Europe: 200,000 barcodes, with a focus on the Alps and southern Europe
High mountain systems
World: 100,000 barcodes, in collaboration with partners in other countries

BIOSCAN: Generate barcode coverage for 2M species

Species interactions – Innovative approaches combining metabarcoding and HTS sequencing

Parasitoids and biomes
Foodwebs, molecular prey identification, gut content analysis

BIOSCAN: Reveal species interactions by targeting the symbiome

Species dynamics: Assessing shifts in species distribution and abundance

Germany: biodiversity assessment at 1,000 sites
Europe: biodiversity assessment at 100 sites
World: biodiversity assessment at 10 sites in selected partner countries (e.g. Australia, Ethiopia, Colombia, Mali, Peru, South Africa, Vietnam)

BIOSCAN: Scan biological communities at 2,000 sites