Final MBT Annual General Meeting
We held the final AGM for the Marine Biosecurity Toolbox project, after five years of intensive research and collaborations.
Pest Alert Tool—a web-based application for flagging species of concern in metabarcoding datasets
A new online tool called the Pest Alert Tool has been developed to screen high-throughput sequencing datasets for species of concern, providing a valuable resource for biodiversity management.
Experimental insights on effective eDNA/eRNA capture from seawater samples
An experimental study was conducted to test different filter membranes for capturing eDNA/eRNA in the context of cost/time effort and cell fractions encountered in nature. For the first time a formal efficiency modelling was applied in eDNA and eRNA research to assist decision-making around an optimized sampling approach.
To clean or not to clean: views of boat owners in keeping boat hulls free of biofouling organisms
Researchers from the MANAGE AND RESPOND and ECONOMICS AND DECISION SUPPORT teams have joined forces to work towards an understanding of the factors that encourage or discourage hull cleaning behavior of the recreational boat owners in New Zealand.
Teaming-up with the Five Million: Exploring motivation of Kiwis to participate in the detection of marine pests
To get a glimpse of citizens’ attitudes towards biosecurity in the marine environment and marine pest detection activities, the programme team run a focus group in collaboration with partner schools in Nelson.
Better ways to capture DNA and RNA from water – collaboration with Dr. Holly Bowers from Moss Landing Marine Labs
Holly Bowers joined our group as a visiting researcher and worked with the DETECT and ECONOMICS & DECISION-SUPPORT teams to define better (and more efficient) methods to capture nucleic acids (environmental DNA and RNA) from marine waters.