July 5^th - 16^th 2021

The Earth is currently experiencing a large decline in biodiversity caused by human activity. This is known as the Sixth Mass Extinction and its five main drivers are habitat loss, alien species, over-exploitation, pollution ,and climate change. About 86% of all eukaryotic species still have not been described and most of them will go extinct before they can even be discovered. On top of that, out of the known species, more than 32,000 are threatened with extinction according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

Efforts to preserve biodiversity and halt its decline are crucial if we want to stop the current mass extinction. But first, we need to understand biodiversity in order to protect it. For many centuries, scientists have been using mainly morphological characters to describe new species. Nowadays, with the advent of genetics, evolutionary biologists have new tools and new perspectives on the insights of biodiversity, which allow them to study species evolution, their ecology, unveil cryptic species, and identify biodiversity hotspots to prioritize for conservation.

Do you want to put yourself in the shoes of an evolutionary biologist?

In this project, you will study the biodiversity of an archipelago, from species identification to their distribution, using cutting-edge genetic, genomic, morphological, geospatial, and bioinformatics tools. You will be tasked with the databasing, mapping, andidentification of different species based on their morphology and DNA barcoding techniques. You will extract DNA from samples and perform PCRs.You will also study the effects of an emergent disease caused by an invasive species that is threatening the archipelago’s biodiversity using the qPCR technique to detect and monitor infection levels. But that's not all! During this challenge, you will also apply bioinformatics tools to infer phylogenetic trees that will allow you to reconstruct the evolutionary history of the archipelago’s species before they go extinct.

With this evolutionary puzzle, you will learn from the ground up how we discover, identify, and classify species in order to protect them, while having the opportunity to have fun as a scientist and to grow with your own team. At the same time, the new skills that you will acquire during this project will broaden your view on biodiversity, evolution, and our natural world, while experiencing the day-to-day life of an evolutionary biologist. 

Join us and take part in our project to prevent biodiversity from undergoing the Sixth Mass Extinction!