Monitoring Biodiversity Impacts of a Changing Arctic Through Environmental DNA

Abstract

The Ocean Molecular Ecology (OME) program at the NOAA Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory (PMEL) is a recently established research group that partners with several established PMEL and Alaska Fisheries Science Center (AFSC) programs including Ecosystems & Fisheries-Oceanography Coordinated Investigations (EcoFOCI), Ocean Carbon, and Earth-Ocean Interactions (EOI). The OME program utilizes a suite of molecular tools to support long-term research initiatives through genomics applications, and their development and application as novel environmental (e)DNA approaches has been key for facilitating collaborations within PMEL and NOAA Oceanic and Atmospheric Research, and across NOAA line offices.