Biodiversity is threatened by climate change, the introduction of invasive species, and environmental disturbance. The resulting shifts in biodiversity often happen at a breakneck pace—so quickly that they exceed our ability to generate the baseline data needed to track change. Gaps in biodiversity data are especially apparent in the ocean, where many species are small, cryptic, living in deep water, or are completely unknown to Western science.
Since 2018, the Hakai Institute has been a leader in DNA barcoding of marine life. DNA barcoding is the use of a short, standardized region of DNA to identify different species. It provides a powerful tool for biodiversity surveys by enabling the accurate identification of small, cryptic, or hard-to-ID species, which can be challenging to identify by eye.
Critically, this approach also enables species identification from damaged or incomplete samples or from traces shed by animals (e.g. scat, fish scales, or fur) into their habitats, known as environmental DNA (eDNA).
By sequencing the DNA from as many species as possible, Hakai scientists are contributing to a massive reference database—the Barcode of Life Data Systems (BOLD). The goal of BOLD is to link every species on earth with a diagnostic DNA sequence that can be used to identify it in the future.
To date, the Hakai institute has contributed roughly 20,000 records to this global initiative, many of them filling gaps: approximately 20 percent of the marine invertebrate DNA sequences provided by the Hakai Institute were previously absent from BOLD.
Partners
This work is carried out in partnership with dozens of taxonomists and museum curators from across North America including the Royal BC Museum, the Beaty Biodiversity Museum, the Smithsonian Institution, and many others who help us to identify and catalog these species. We also partner with global initiatives including BIOSCAN and the United Nations Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development.
Context
Our DNA barcoding research is primarily focused on the diversity of marine species, including invertebrates, seaweeds, and fish, which we obtain from a variety of depths and habitats along the coast of British Columbia. We have also collaborated with taxonomic experts on land, and have worked on DNA barcoding insects, plants, lichens, and mammals.
This is a long-running initiative at the Hakai Institute that is closely tied with our ongoing work facilitating bioblitzes, long-term monitoring initiatives, and intensive biodiversity surveys in various regions and habitats on the BC coast. Adding a genetic component to these intensive surveys adds a unique layer of data that is essential for modern, DNA-based environmental monitoring.
Outcomes
DNA barcoding at the Hakai Institute has led to the discovery of new species and to the identification of species in geographical areas where they were not previously recorded.
As noted above, roughly 20 percent of the Hakai Institute’s marine invertebrate DNA sequences were previously absent from global reference databases for DNA barcodes. This suggests that significant gaps still remain in the reference database and highlights the vast amount of hidden diversity in coastal ecosystems.
Similarly, this research has accelerated the rate of discovery of new species of seaweeds, which can be particularly challenging to identify without DNA sequences.
