HaploSEA | Including intraspecific diversity of eDNA analyses to develop a new holistic approach for Environmental Status Assessments of the benthic deep-sea

Summary
Measuring anthropogenic impacts on marine systems is of significant interest to stakeholders across the globe. Yet, assessing the ecological status of deep-sea habitats, the earth's largest biome, is challenging. Implementing environmental DNA analysis into environmental policy is desired and timely but not yet ready. HaploSEA is evaluating the use of meta-genetic diversity for biological assessments of deep-sea benthic communities. These include four novel approaches: (I) Performing holistic metabarcoding analyses including bacteria and archaea, unicellular eukaryotes, and metazoans to analyze natural spatial and temporal variability of entire communities. (II) Including haplotype diversity as a new parameter to describe ecosystems. (III) Establish a generic protocol to define genetic indicator groups based on their intraspecific diversity. (IV) Including capture by hybridization, a novel method for full gene reconstruction, and designing specific capture probes for biotic indicator groups of cyanobacteria, foraminifera, and nematodes. For analyses, we will benefit from a unique metabarcoding database (eDNAbyss, Ifremer) with global coverage and 1500 samples from all ocean basins, which are standardized, analyzed, and processed for five-gene regions. Using state-of-the-art underwater technology, we will sample in the deep sea along a disturbance gradient to collect samples for analysis via the above novel approaches. Finally, I will evaluate the suggested approaches and outline their future use for meta-genetic environmental assessments. HaploSEA is an interactive and multidisciplinary project combining expertise and facilities at top European institutes in deep-sea marine science (Ifremer, GEOMAR, and MARUM). This setup combines specialists from different fields, technical backgrounds, and taxonomic groups to share different perspectives and novel approaches.
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Web resources: https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/101108076
Start date: 01-01-2024
End date: 31-12-2025
Total budget - Public funding: - 173 847,00 Euro
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Original description

Measuring anthropogenic impacts on marine systems is of significant interest to stakeholders across the globe. Yet, assessing the ecological status of deep-sea habitats, the earth's largest biome, is challenging. Implementing environmental DNA analysis into environmental policy is desired and timely but not yet ready. HaploSEA is evaluating the use of meta-genetic diversity for biological assessments of deep-sea benthic communities. These include four novel approaches: (I) Performing holistic metabarcoding analyses including bacteria and archaea, unicellular eukaryotes, and metazoans to analyze natural spatial and temporal variability of entire communities. (II) Including haplotype diversity as a new parameter to describe ecosystems. (III) Establish a generic protocol to define genetic indicator groups based on their intraspecific diversity. (IV) Including capture by hybridization, a novel method for full gene reconstruction, and designing specific capture probes for biotic indicator groups of cyanobacteria, foraminifera, and nematodes. For analyses, we will benefit from a unique metabarcoding database (eDNAbyss, Ifremer) with global coverage and 1500 samples from all ocean basins, which are standardized, analyzed, and processed for five-gene regions. Using state-of-the-art underwater technology, we will sample in the deep sea along a disturbance gradient to collect samples for analysis via the above novel approaches. Finally, I will evaluate the suggested approaches and outline their future use for meta-genetic environmental assessments. HaploSEA is an interactive and multidisciplinary project combining expertise and facilities at top European institutes in deep-sea marine science (Ifremer, GEOMAR, and MARUM). This setup combines specialists from different fields, technical backgrounds, and taxonomic groups to share different perspectives and novel approaches.

Status

SIGNED

Call topic

HORIZON-MSCA-2022-PF-01-01

Update Date

31-07-2023
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