22-Apr-2016 Luke Powell "Metabarcoding"
Published: 11 February 2016
Please join us for a special research talk titled “Metabarcoding” by Luke Powell
22nd April 12 pm
Graham Kerr Building, Library
Luke Powell will be speaking on “Metabarcoding” on the 22nd of April at 12 pm in the GK library.
Equatorial Guinea can be considered a microcosm of Central Africa: it contains primarily lowland rainforest, is megadiverse, and is developing quickly as its human population rapidly expands. I will highlight the progress of the Equatorial Guinea Biodiversity Initiative (EGBI), an NGO founded to understand and conserve the fauna of Equatorial Guinea though education, exploration and ecology. Using birds and mammals as indicators, the EGBI has studied differences between animal communities in disturbed and undisturbed forest with the goal of understanding how primary forest protects rainforest animals. I will highlight camera trapping efforts for mammals and will address efforts to use next-generation sequencing of bird feces (metabarcoding) to understand if diet drives the extreme vulnerability of insectivorous rainforest birds.
First published: 11 February 2016