Connecting high-throughput biodiversity inventories: Opportunities for a site-based genomic framework for global integration and synthesis
File(s)
Published version
Author(s)
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
High‐throughput sequencing (HTS) is increasingly being used for the characterization and monitoring of biodiversity. If applied in a structured way, across broad geographical scales, it offers the potential for a much deeper understanding of global biodiversity through the integration of massive quantities of molecular inventory data generated independently at local, regional and global scales. The universality, reliability and efficiency of HTS data can potentially facilitate the seamless linking of data among species assemblages from different sites, at different hierarchical levels of diversity, for any taxonomic group and regardless of prior taxonomic knowledge. However, collective international efforts are required to optimally exploit the potential of site‐based HTS data for global integration and synthesis, efforts that at present are limited to the microbial domain. To contribute to the development of an analogous strategy for the nonmicrobial terrestrial domain, an international symposium entitled “Next Generation Biodiversity Monitoring” was held in November 2019 in Nicosia (Cyprus). The symposium brought together evolutionary geneticists, ecologists and biodiversity scientists involved in diverse regional and global initiatives using HTS as a core tool for biodiversity assessment. In this review, we summarize the consensus that emerged from the 3‐day symposium. We converged on the opinion that an effective terrestrial Genomic Observatories network for global biodiversity integration and synthesis should be spatially led and strategically united under the umbrella of the metabarcoding approach. Subsequently, we outline an HTS‐based strategy to collectively build an integrative framework for site‐based biodiversity data generation.
Date Issued
2021-03
Date Acceptance
2021-01-05
Citation
Molecular Ecology, 2021, 30 (5), pp.1120-1135
ISSN
0962-1083
Publisher
Wiley
Start Page
1120
End Page
1135
Journal / Book Title
Molecular Ecology
Volume
30
Issue
5
Copyright Statement
© 2021 The Authors. Molecular Ecology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
License URL
Sponsor
Natural Environment Research Council (NERC)
Identifier
http://gateway.webofknowledge.com/gateway/Gateway.cgi?GWVersion=2&SrcApp=PARTNER_APP&SrcAuth=LinksAMR&KeyUT=WOS:000613672700001&DestLinkType=FullRecord&DestApp=ALL_WOS&UsrCustomerID=1ba7043ffcc86c417c072aa74d649202
Grant Number
NE/K006339/1
Subjects
Science & Technology
Life Sciences & Biomedicine
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Ecology
Evolutionary Biology
Environmental Sciences & Ecology
biodiversity assessment
DNA metabarcoding
Genomic Observatories
harmonized data generation
high-throughput sequencing
Publication Status
Published
Date Publish Online
2021-01-12