Biodiversa application - Mesophotic coral monitoring system

Purpose and goal:

Mesophotic coral reefs, located at depths beyond the reach of most divers (30-150 m), remain largely unexplored, understudied, and underappreciated. There is a pressing need to catch up on mesophotic species to complement the level of literature available on their shallow water counterparts while simultaneously building up public interest in their conservation for effective transformative change. We will apply genomics to biodiversity studies and conservation as a means to achieve this.

Expected results and effects:

The idea of this project is to begin building up a system for rapid, reliable, and multifaceted environmental monitoring of the effects of climate change and marine resource abundance, which can be used by researchers and agencies commissioned by the government for more responsible and informed sustainable resource management. For biodiversity-rich but economically poor countries (eg. Philippines) they can use this service to formulate more evidence-based conservation actions.

Approach and implementation:

Our goal is to secure funding to carry out this project by submitting an application to Biodiversa+ 2024. We would also create a Grants Calendar and look at other calls that fit parts of the project idea. Lastly, we would carry out some small feasibility tests and proof of concept with a test run of sampling deepwater corals in Philippines or Italy, extracting their DNA from local laboratory facilities, and transporting the DNA to Sweden for sequencing.