Project Metabarpark in IRBio Seminars

Project Metabarpark will be present in the talk session hosted by IRBio (Institute for Research in Biodiversity) at the School of Biology of the University of Barcelona, this Thursday 26th of November.

Xavier Turon will talk about "Biodiversity crisis and the taxonomic impediment: what the metabarcoding of communities has to offer" and Owen Wangensteen will follow with a talk about "Metabarcoding of marine hard-bottom communities, the unseen biodiversity".

The entrance is free and you are all invited!

Metabarpark at the Course “New Technologies applied to the control and monitoring of invasive species”

In October, 19 to 23, the Spanish National Parks managing organisation (“Organismo Autónomo Parques Nacionales”) organised a course on new technologies applied to the study of invasive species in Vigo (Galicia). This course was attended by staff, technicians, and rangers of the National Parks in Spain.

Xavier Turon was invited to give a lecture about “Genetic tools and invasive species”. It was an enjoyable experience, with interested audience that posed clever questions. It was also a pleasure to meet again the friends of the Parque Nacional de las Islas Atlánticas (Pepín, Vicente, Mercedes…), thanks for your hospitality, as always!

Second collecting trip in Cabrera done!

In October, 2 to 8, we made the second sampling foreseen in the workplan in the Cabrera Archipelago National Park. As in the previous year, we organized a joint trip with members of the CORCLIM project. In this way we optimized costs and logistics, and of course it was an excellent opportunity for interaction and exchange of experiences.

From left to right: Xavier Turon, Pol Capdevila, Kike Ballesteros... in action (foto: Eneko Aspillaga)

The always blue waters of Cabrera (foto: Eneko Aspillaga)

In this trip we worked again in the Imperial Islet, where we sampled the same communities as in the previous year. In addition, we got samples from a community dominated by the invasive seaweed Caulerpa cylindracea at 30 m depth. Weather was far from perfect, and we had to cope with some unexpected problems such as the breakdown of the compressor, but we finally managed to get back with all samples foreseen.

An image of the community dominated by Caulerpa cylindracea (foto: Eneko Aspillaga)

By now, all samples collected in Islas Cíes in May and in Cabrera in October have been processed, sieved into size classes, their DNA extracted, and we are working in the amplification of the two genes chosen, 18S and COI. In one-two weeks we expect to send the samples to Fasteris (Switzerland) for parallel sequencing.