On 10 November 2020 the entire Biosecurity Toolbox programme team got together for our first Annual Programme Day. We reviewed and shared achievements made across all work streams, discussed challenges and opportunities and further strengthened the programme’s team spirit.
We have started to employ modelling approaches to better understand and predict the dispersal of eDNA in the marine environment. Learn about our first field sampling campaign for testing whether the developed model can robustly predict where and when in the tidal cycle eDNA can be detected.
Learn how Martin Zirngibl is contributing his knowledge and skills gained in a human biology field to developing a rapid and easy-to-apply in-field test for the Mediterranean fanworm detection.
We have commenced a series of hands-on activities with partner teachers to introduce them to key concepts in marine ecology and biosecurity, molecular methods and useful resources for incorporation into the schools’ curriculum and for future citizen scientists engaged in molecular biosecurity surveillance.
Our project is making a start using the endemic, green-lipped mussel (kutai) to develop artificial surfaces that are attractive to native species and make them want to settle and stay for the long haul. Such surfaces can then be incorporated into coastal infrastructure, a process referred to as ‘ecological engineering’.
Our recent experimental trials demonstrate that bubble streams are highly effective in controlling biofouling accumulation on experimental surfaces, and we are now keenly focused on developing operational systems to deploy in New Zealand’s ports and marinas
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.
An educational article on environmental DNA was published in Frontiers for Young Minds journal - a unique open-access scientific journal aimed at younger audiences with scientific articles reviewed by a board of kids and teens.
Together with a wide group of international experts a roadmap for a meaningful collaboration between researchers and end-users towards the implementation of molecular methods in marine policies was suggested and published in a peer-reviewed paper.
An important opinion paper on “The risks of using molecular biodiversity data for incidental detection of species of concern”, published in Diversity and Distributions journal.