8th ABOL meeting – a retrospect

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For the second time, the ABOL meeting was conducted as online conference because of to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic and also for the second time it was held under the common title Days of Biodiversity following the Austrian Biodiversity Forum. A number of interesting topics had already been presented and discussed in the workshops of the pre-phase of the biodiversity forum. The results of the workshops as well as the Annual Barometer of the Austrian Biodiversity Policy were presented at the 4th Austrian Forum on Biodiversity & Ecosystem Services on November 29th. In addition, there were top-level lectures, a virtual panel discussion and poster presentations. The ABOL meeting followed on the second day with a consistently high level of content. In the introductory lecture by Nikola Szucsich, the participants were brought up to date on ABOL’s activities. We were able to win Otso Ovaskainen from the University of Helsinki as a keynote speaker, who reported on the global biodiversity project Lifeplan, in which Austria is participating with three study sites. The other talks covered very diverse topics  and represented the broad spectrum of  biodiversity and DNA barcoding – from the detection of cercaria in lakes, illegaly used shark products in the food trade, tracing Corona viruses in sewage,  analyzing beetle food intake, reconstruction of historical vegetation from lake sediments and much more. One of the sessions focused on the progress made in the Hochschulraumstrukturmittel (HRSM) project, a large cooperation project of universities to install DNA barcoding pipelines.

The ABOL meeting was again very well attended with more than 130 registrations and up to 100 concurrent participants.

We would like to thank for all the interesting contributions, for remarks and discussions, our sponsors and, last but not least, the organizers from the Biodiversity Hub and the University of Continuing Education Krems for the constructive cooperation!

The abstracts of the talks can still be downloaded from the conference website: www.abol.ac.at/abol-tagung-2021/

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ABOL meeting: Call for Abstracts

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Dear ABOL Community

the joint registration page for the ABOL meeting and the Biodiversity Forum is now online.
Please register on the following page: -> Days of Biodiversity – Program & Registration

Abstracts for talks (15 min. + 5 min. discussion) and flash talks (5 min. + 3 min. discussion) can still be submitted for the ABOL meeting on November 30th. Please send your abstract by Nov. 7th by email to: abol@nhm-wien.ac.at. We look forward to your interesting talk!

Unfortunately we have to announce that the ABOL meeting will take place again this year as a pure ONLINE conference. The Covid-19 regulations do not allow a cozy get-together, so we did not consider it useful to hold a face-to-face conference. However, we are confident that the online meeting will also be successful thanks to your help!

ABOL conference website

The ABOL coordination team

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Gruppenfoto TdA Hohe Tauern. Foto: M. SonnleitnerM. Sonnleitner

ABOL BioBlitz at the Day of Biodiversity in the National Park Hohe Tauern/Lungau

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The last BioBlitz this year was carried out by ABOL in the course of the Biodiversity Day in the Hohe Tauern National Park. The study area ranged from montane to alpine altitudes in the upper Mur valley in the national park municipality of Muhr im Lungau. The JUFA Hotel in St. Michael, the Sticklerhütte and the Rotgüldenseehütte served as bases. A total of 64 experts on 25 different groups of organisms took part in the Biodiversity Day; many of them also participated in the ABOL BioBlitz.

Unfortunately, heavy rainfalls accompanied the event – not a good precondition for successful surveys. On the one hand, many species were not active and also the experts had problems to move forward in the often steep and slippery terrain. Nevertheless, due to persistence and creativity a considerable number of species could again be detected. As planned, some researchers set up their light traps already on Friday evening to attract nocturnal insects – especially butterflies. Fortunately, the temperatures did not drop very much, so that many, mostly characteristic mountain species, could already be surveyed during this action. In addition, five bat species were detected by sound detectors. Naturally, most of the species were recorded by the botanists, which were able to work even in bad weather by the persevering group. The data recording in this case was mainly done via the app ObsMapp (observation.org).

In the course of a pleasant get-together at the JUFA Hotel on Sunday morning, the results and findings of the last two days were discussed, there was also opportunity to exchange ideas with other experts and and to give the participants a short summary of the BioBlitzes from the past two years.

We would like to thank the National Park team for the excellent organization, the transport with shuttle busses and the nice accommodations. A big thank you from our side also to all who participated again in the ABOL-BioBlitz action!

Impressiones from the study area (Photos: M. Sonnleitner):

Eriophoretum. Upper Rotgülden lake. TdA Hohe Tauern. Photo: M. Sonnleitner
End of valley behind the fountain of the Mur river. TdA Hohe Tauern. Photo: M. Sonnleitner
Digitalis grandiflora. Rotgülden lake. TdA Hohe Tauern. Photo: M. Sonnleitner
Fountain of the Mur river. TdA Hohe Tauern. Photo: M. Sonnleitner
Symphyta. Rotgülden lake. TdA Hohe Tauern. Photo: M. Sonnleitner
Bombus sp. Rotgülden lake. TdA Hohe Tauern. Photo: M. Sonnleitner
Diptera. Rotgülden lake. TdA Hohe Tauern. Photo: M. Sonnleitner
Path to the fountain of the Mur river. TdA Hohe Tauern. Photo: M. Sonnleitner
Dianthus superbus. Rotgülden lake. TdA Hohe Tauern. Photo: M. Sonnleitner
Lepidoptera. Rotgülden lake. TdA Hohe Tauern. Photo: M. Sonnleitner
Fountain of the Mur river. TdA Hohe Tauern. Photo: M. Sonnleitner
Gomphocerus sibiricus. Rotgülden lake. TdA Hohe Tauern. Photo: M. Sonnleitner
Argynnis paphia. Rotgülden lake. TdA Hohe Tauern. Photo: M. Sonnleitner
Dianthus carthusianorum. Rotgülden lake. TdA Hohe Tauern. Photo: M. Sonnleitner
Path to the fountain of the Mur river. TdA Hohe Tauern. Photo: M. Sonnleitner
Group photo. TdA Hohe Tauern. Photo: M. Sonnleitner
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ABOL meeting 2021 – Save the date

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Dear ABOL Community

We would like to continue the tradition of annual ABOL conferences. The 8th ABOL meeting will take place on Tuesday, November 30th, 2021 following the Forum on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services at the Danube University Krems. The two events will again be organized together as Days of Biodiversity. We hope that face-to-face events are possible, but if necessary we will hold them ONLINE.

We will keep you informed and ask you to save the date!

*** It is planned to hold the Days of Biodiversity 2021 as a Green Meeting. ***

Best regards,

the ABOL coordination team

 

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Christoph Leeb

First ABOL BioBlitz at the “Donauinsel” in Vienna

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The first ABOL BioBlitz 2021 took place on June 11th and 12th, at the Danube Island (Donauinsel) during the 20th Vienna Day of Biodiversity organized by the departments of the municipality of Vienna for environmental protection and water. Numerous biodiversity experts swarmed out to record the fauna, flora and funga of the Donauinsel, especially in the area of ​​Wehr 1 and Tritonwasser, whereby samples were also collected for the creation of DNA barcodes.

Experts met on Friday evening to attract moths and other nocturnal insects with numerous light traps. On Saturday, when the weather was mostly fine, the well-developed, species-rich meadows around the basecamp were investigated. Not only the honey bee was strongly represented on the numerous flowering Knautia individuals but also the solitary bee Andrena hattorfiana, which is an oligolectic species feeding on Knautia pollen and a few other Dipsacaceae. Even the parasite of A. hattorfiana, Nomada armata, could be detected. Numerous other insect species were found in the meadows. The nearby Triton water with beautiful silting zones in which water frogs could be found in large numbers was particularly interesting for the amphibia experts. It is particularly gratifying that – although the data reporting has not yet been completed – with Trigoniophthalmus alternatus, a representative of the large group of bristletails, a new record for Vienna has already been booked.
Unfortunately, due to the corona pandemic, no public event could take place this year, but it should be rescheduled at the same place next year.
We would like to thank the organizers and the participants of the ABOL BioBlitz!

Impressions from the study area (Photos: N. Szucsich, C. Leeb, M. Sonnleitner):

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ABOL BioBlitz 2021

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After two successful runs in 2019 and 2020 ABOL BioBlitzes are already well known in the community . This year we will again take part in the Days of Biodiversity and call collectors to take part in the ABOL BioBlitz campaign. The aim is to sample collected and determined animals (especially insects) for genetic analysis. Thereby, added value can be created – we can contribute to the DNA barcoding database, secure the determination and convey an innovative method.

More information: ABOL BioBlitz 2021

For the first time this year, we are also offering Data Workshops in which the handling of DNA barcoding data and the international BOLD database can be learned and practiced. The online workshops can be attended by collectors and other interested persons. The dates are set as required. If you are interested, please send an email to Oliver.Macek@nhm-wien.ac.at.

More information: Data workshops
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Workshops “BOLD & Data analysis”

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The new ABOL workshop offer “BOLD & data analysis” has started successfully.

In February, the first two workshops familiarized already a total of 28 participants with the international Barcode of Life Database (BOLD) and enabled them to get insights into the analysis tools of this platform. During the workshops the participants had the opportunity to work actively with the platform and practice the interpretation of the DNA barcoding data.
The online format of the workshops facilitated cross-border participation – members from a total of 15 institutes were represented from Austria, Germany, Croatia and Italy. Due to the different levels of knowledge, from DNA barcoding newbies to veterans, lively discussions developed about the BOLD, its various functions, details and possibilities and the topic of DNA barcoding in general.
Equipped with introductory information, the participants were able to use a test data set to cope with simple and advanced exercises autonomously and to experience the most common situations on BOLD themselves. BOLD offers good possibilities to solve (simple) DNA barcode analyzes without much effort. In addition, individual and special questions from the participants were addressed, such as the topic of DNA barcoding of museum material, data upload to BOLD & communication with other BOLD users, as well as the weak points of the platform.
Furthermore, we wanted to show how important good data quality is for the usability of a reference database and that BOLD promotes this approach, but the community is just as responsible for constantly improving the quality.

We are very pleased, that the participants also took the chance to strengthen the network of the Austrian and neighbouring biodiversity community in the course of these ABOL workshops.
The next workshop is on March 26th, and more workshops will certainly follow in the future! If you are interested, please contact Oliver Macek by email!

Current information about the workshops can be found on our website:

Website - Data Workshop
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ABOL meeting 2020 ONLINE – a retrospect

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Under the title Days of Biodiversity 2020, the ABOL meeting took place this year together with the 3rd Austrian Forum on Biodiversity & Ecosystem Services as an online event.

During the pre-phase, various topics were discussed in workshops, the results of which, together with other interesting lectures, were presented in the Biodiversity Forum on December 4th.
The last day of the event was dedicated to the ABOL meeting. With – as usual – quite diverse contributions regarding organisms and methods, the 7th annual meeting gave an impressive overview of the various activities within the initiative. The national networks were further strengthened through the exchange beyond the individual areas of interest. The online format also gave the conference more international visibility. We are very pleased that Dr. Katrin Vohland, Director General of the Natural History Museum Vienna, opened the ABOL meeting and underlined the important role of her institition in national and international biodiversity agendas. She also emphasized the importance of participating in EU-wide initiatives such as DiSSCo (Distributed System of Scientific Collections) and the EOSC (European Open Science Cloud) in Austria. The the morning session was devoted to the activities in ABOL and GBOL. We would like to thank our colleagues from GBOL for their interesting keynote on the recently launched Dark Taxa project, which will be of importance for many activities throughout Europe and not least ABOL will benefit from it. At the end of the morning session, Dr. Karolina Begusch-Pfefferkorn from the Federal Ministry of Science (BMBWF) gave a first insights into the European Partnerships in Horizon Europe, a very promising initiative. The afternoon sessions with a total of 13 flash talks were dedicated to a wide variety of DNA barcoding projects and applications. Covering a broad range of topices and geography they were met with great interest.
The almost 190 registrations for the Zoom-Meeting exceeded all previous ABOL meetings and the sessions were equally well attended!

We would like to thank all speakers, all participants, our sponsors and especially Heidi Weinhäupl and the organizing team of the Days of Biodiversity 2020 at the DonauUni Krems for the great cooperation!

Your ABOL coordination team

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ABOL meeting 2020 – programme

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Dear ABOL Community,

the conference program for the ABOL meeting is now complete. We are happy about the many interesting contributions that have been submitted!

Registration for the ABOL meeting is possible until the meeting!

Registration
programme-abol-meeting3-forweb
Download Abstracts

We look forward to an interesting event in a format that is new to us!

Your ABOL coordination team

 

 

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ABOL meeting 2020 ONLINE – Call for Abstracts

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Dear ABOL Community,

probably not surprising to anyone, we decided to hold the Days of Biodiversity ONLINE.
We kindly ask for contributions for the 7th ABOL meeting – either for talks of 20 minutes (+ 10 minutes discussion) or for flash talks of 5 minutes (+ 3 minutes of discussion). Please register and send your abstract to abol@nhm-wien.ac.at by November 15. The conference language at the ABOL meeting is English (German at the Biodiversity Forum).
Participation is free this year – however we kindly ask for donations -> here!
For more information about the ABOL meeting visit our conference page: https://www.abol.ac.at/en/abol-meeting-2020/

The 3rd Austrian Forum on Biodiversity & Ecosystem Services will also take place online for the first time this year (Forum Dec. 4, 2020 / Pre-Workshops Nov. 23-30, 2020). Registration will be possible from next Wednesday, October 28, 2020.
The call for posters is open until November 11, 2020.
Further information here: https://www.biodiversityaustria.at/tage-der-biodiversitaet-2020/

We look forward to exciting days together despite the changed circumstances!

Your ABOL coordination team

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