SACRED Heart College students had an insight into Sorrento’s coastline recently.
The school took part in Curtin University’s Sequence Our Seas program which aims to inspire students to embrace a new method for monitoring and future proofing marine ecosystems: environmental DNA (eDNA) biomonitoring.
By collecting a small water sample, students were able to see which of the 5000 marine species in Australian oceans lived in their local area.
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READ NOWVisiting scientists from the Trace and Environmental DNA (TrEnD) Laboratory team then extracted DNA from the sample to produce a “sea-quence report”.
This eDNA is used to look at an entire eco-system and can be used to track changes to biodiversity over time, offering insights into the effects of climate change.
As a barometer for ocean health, eDNA is offering a revolutionary glimpse into the future of our oceans that we are currently unable to see with other monitoring methods.