Working with the second gene

In March we received the results of the Illumina run performed on our samples amplified for the COI gene. Unfortunately the quality of the reads was no good enough and we had to discard many of them. This led us to ask for a repetition of the run with a new protocol for preparation of the genetic libraries. Fasteris was up to the challenge and repeated the run for free. The results of the new run arrived in May, and this time most of the reads could be used.

With another 14 milion sequences to work with, we are still adjusting our pipelines to meet the specificities of COI. We had to construct a new reference database using the Barcode Of Life Data (BOLD) systems. We hope to have results of this second gene in short!

Recent dissemination activities of Metabarpark

We are committed to disseminate our results to management bodies, researchers, and to the grand public. For this reason, we have recently engaged in a series of divulgative actions that we would like to share here:

# In the recent edition of the International Festival Pint of Science, intended to share scientific knowledge in the fun and relaxed atmosphere of pubs, Xavier Turon presented a talk (with a beer at hand, for sure) at the bar Cara B in the district of Gràcia (Barcelona), the 18th May. The talk was about "deciphering the enigma of biodiversity with genetics", and a good deal of it was centered on the progress of Metabarpark. Cara B was fully packed with interested people!

 http://pintofscience.es/event/barcelona-cara-b-falta-2/

Billboard anouncing the Festival 

# Likewise, Xavier Turon delivered a talk about the project to the managers and staff of the Organismo Autónomo Parques Nacionales (OAPN), funder of Metabarpark, in Madrid, the 22nd May

# Owen Wangensteen participated in the XV International Echinoderm Conference, held at Playa del Carmen, Mexico (25th-29th May), and presented a talk about the applicability of metabarcoding to echinoderms, stemming largely from results of our Project: "Metabarcoding of Echinoderms, promises and pitfalls"

# Xavier Turon spent a couple of weeks at the National Oceanography Centre (NOC) in Southampton for sampling and manuscript writing with colleagues. He was the speaker at the Friday Seminar of the 5th June presenting the talk "Biodiversity crisis and taxonomic impediment: what the genetic metabarcoding of marine communities has to offer", where he presented results of Metabarpark

We made it to the front page of Faro de Vigo

The second sampling trip to the Cíes Islands was showcased by the newspaper Faro de Vigo in his front page of the 15th May edition, followed by an interview to Xavier Turon in the inner pages

http://www.farodevigo.es/gran-vigo/2015/05/15/csi-remata-criba-cies/1240243.html

We are happy to collaborate with Alberto Otero from Faro de Vigo and we acknowledge his help in disseminating what we are doing to the wide readership of this newspaper

Second sampling in Cíes

In May 13th-16th, members of the Metabarpark team (Creu Palacín, Owen Wangensteen, Xavier Turon) went to Islas Cíes again for a second sampling. Our goal was to assess seasonal differences in the communities, by comparing this sampling with the one done in September.
We are thankful to Alex Macía and Buceo Islas Cíes, who provided logistic support and took us with his boat every day from Vigo to the islands.
We re-sampled the photophilous and sciaphilous communities, as well as the Maërl bed and the Lago dos Nenos sediment, at exactly the same places as in September. In addition, we obtained samples from a shallow community of Asparagopsis armata, an introduced seaweed.

From left to right, Xavier, Owen, and Creu ready to leave from Vigo

The samples will be processed in exactly the same way as those from September, and we expect to find significant changes in species composition and relative abundances linked to the seasonal component... let's see!