ZERO-IMPACT

Modeling
eDNA transport
Automatic monitoring of biodiversity in the North Sea using eDNA

ZERO-IMPACT - Automatic monitoring of biodiversity in the North Sea using eDNA

September 2021 - November 2023

Summary

ZERO-IMPACT aims to develop an innovative, sustainable and automatic method to detect marine species based on ‘environmental’ DNA (eDNA). The project is a methodological study that is hands-on with concrete applications for biodiversity monitoring, marine fisheries and aquaculture, in particular: - supporting stock estimates of commercial fish species - more accurate delineation of spawning periods of commercial fish species and splash fall periods of marine animals - detection of toxic algae and harmful parasites in relation to marine shellfish culture - monitoring biodiversity (animals and phytoplankton) in support of science and policy (achieving Good Environmental Status according to the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD, Directive 2008/56 /EC) and Natura 2000 conservation objectives)

Studying marine species and biodiversity using eDNA is complementary to traditional methods and at the same time offers huge advantages: 1/ by collecting water to detect the presence of species, the organisms themselves are not disturbed or killed, 2/ studying different organisms (fish, invertebrates, plankton) can be done based on only one sampling method and 3/ continuous time series for marine biodiversity and fish populations can be obtained through automatic sampling of seawater.

Team members involved

Léo Barbut – Geneviève Lacroix

ECOMOD tasks and responsabilities

Modelling eDNA transport

Partners

  1. EV-ILVO (Sofie Derycke)
  2. UGent (Koen Sabbe)
  3. RBINS-ECOMOD (Geneviève Lacroix) & RBINS-FWB (Isa Schön)

Funding and contract

Funding for the ZERO-IMPACT project was received through the Operational Program for Community Assistance from the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund for the programming period 2014-2020 within UP 6 “Promoting the application of the Integrated Maritime Policy”.

Dissemination

Final project report: Derycke S., Cornelis I., Dukan N., Kallend A., Sabbe K., Vandenboer Y., Dupont D., Barbut L., Lacroix G., Schön I. (2023). Automatic monitoring of biodiversity in the North Sea using eDNA. PDF