eDNA sampling and analysis as a tool for biodiversity monitoring and conservation | Marta De Barba

Recording of a webinar lecture by ‪@DivjaLABS‬ ' co-founder Marta De Barba.
Environmental DNA (eDNA) sampling and analysis, using organismal DNA shed into the environment and extracted from environmental samples, such as soil, water or snow, are a powerful and cost effective tool to assess biodiversity and non-invasively study wildlife populations. Here I will provide an overview of eDNA applications to conservation spanning from species and individual detection to reconstruction of animal diet and trophic interactions and biodiversity assessment of entire ecosystems.
Marta De Barba, PhD is an expert in conservation genetics and molecular ecology. She has worked as a researcher in top laboratories in the USA and France for the last twenty years, with projects in Europe, North and South America. She has extensive experience in non-invasive genetic sampling, animal diet analysis by DNA metabarcoding and environmental DNA (eDNA) analysis. She has taught as a lecturer at several DNA metabarcoding summer schools and has also taught Wildlife and Fish Ecology at the University of Idaho (USA). She has applied for and managed an international Biodiversa project (BEARCONNECT) and a France-Spain-Andorra Interreg project (LoupO - EFA354/19). She coordinated the launch of genetic monitoring of brown bears in the Italian Alps (Trentino). She participates in the application and implementation of an international LIFE project (LIFE WolfAlps EU). She is a co-founder of DivjaLabs Ltd.