US-French research team to barcode an entire...(could shed light on the impact of climat...)
could shed light on the impact of climate change, while documenting the invasive species that have been introduced to the island would speak to the effects of globalization. Creating a record of all of the island's species can also highlight localized human-generated problems such as over-fishing, habitat destruction and pollution.
"Virtually all the ecosystems in the world are under these same stresses, and how they are responding to them is what we need to understand," said Davies, the lead principal investigator on the grant. "A model ecosystem approach to ecology will benefit conservation much like model organisms - from fruit flies to roundworms - in molecular biology have benefited medicine. There is a great deal of insight researchers can obtain about very complex systems by first studying simple ones. Much of what we learn at Moorea will be applicable elsewhere."
The biocode study will also help scientists understand the evolution of the island's species over the millennia, said Moritz, co-principal investigator of this project. He notes that while a number of non-native insects or plants have drifted in on the wind or been carried over by birds, humans are credited with - or blamed for - bringing larger animals to the island, including rats.
"By comparing the genetic barcode of species on this island with those on other islands, we can get a sense of how long they've been on Moorea, and thus how they likely arrived," said Moritz. "The whole history of this island is one of invasion, and this project will help untangle a bit of that history."
At the end of the three-year project, the Moorea Biocode Project will have sequenced a whole tropical ecosystem. "Like the Human Genome Project, however, this unprecedented accomplishment is, in some ways, merely a necessary first step," said Davies. "Its goal is to accelerate progress on the larger questions: how to maintain a healthy ecosystem and what to do when things go wrong."'/>"/>
| Contact: Sarah Yang scyang@berkeley.edu 510-643-7741 University of California - Berkeley Source:Eurekalert |
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 US-French research team to barcode an entire ecosystem |
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