Lead institution:
University of Connecticut – United States of America (USA)
MetaZooGene ML2030 will work toward a global vision for integrative molecular – morphological taxonomic analysis of marine zooplankton biodiversity.
The overarching goal is to promote and facilitate DNA barcoding and metabarcoding to characterize local-to-global patterns of biodiversity and biogeography of zooplankton. Applications include monitoring of ecosystem health, rapid detection of impacts of climate change, characterization of food webs, and identification of introduced and non indigenous species. Deliverables include taxonomically-comprehensive global-scale DNA sequence reference databases for barcode gene regions (https://metazoogene.org/database) required for species identification. Recommendations for best practices will be documented in review papers in peer-reviewed open access journals. Capacity-building goals will be met through symposia for early career scientists and those from developing countries, to be held in association with international conferences.
This Project is hosted by the Ocean Decade Programme Marine Life 2030
Start date: 01/06/2022
End date: 31/12/2025
Lead Contact: Ann Bucklin (ann.bucklin@uconn.edu)