The dependence of man on his living environment is reflected far too little in political action. In order to give a stronger voice to biodiversity, a Biodiversity Council has recently been set up by experts. A first press release can be read here.
Hopefully, the Biodiversity Council will grow in the future, so that biodiversity can become one of several equal societal goals, in line with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
Your ABOL coordination team
“Summit of Biodiversity at the foot of Mt. Grossglockner” was the motto of the 13th Day of Biodiversity of the Hohe Tauern National Park, in which ABOL again participated with a BioBlitz. From 26th to 28th July, more than 60 experts examined the Gössnitztal, an elongated high valley at an altitude of about 2,000 m, and the valley floor around Heiligenblut. In addition to plants and fungi numerous groups of animals were processed, a mobile app often facilitated the data acquisition. At dusk, light traps were installed to attract nocturnal insects – especially moths – at different altitudes. In addition, bats were observed and their calls recorded by a batcorder.
We are pleased that the genetic detection of species diversity using DNA barcodes has met with great interest. Thus, numerous samples can contribute to the establishment of a Genetic Guide of Austrian biodiversity.
A big compliment and a great thank you to all organizers. No logistical challenges – several accommodations had to be organized, researchers had to take buses to the starting point for hikes, etc. – was too big.
We would like to thank the entire National Park team and the experts for their cooperation in the ABOL-BioBlitz!
Biodiversity loss currently receives much attention in media. One trigger for this is the recently published WWF Living Planet Report 2018, which shows a persistent massive population decline in vertebrates. The Living Planet Index (LPI) has been compiled every two years since 1998, and makes statements about the evolution of thousands of vertebrate species. The dramatic result shows a decline in natural populations with a decrease of individual numbers of 60% on average since 1970.
For the first time the LPI was compiled for Austria, in a cooperation of WWF and BOKU. The study examined the period between 1986 and 2015. The result is worrying: the mentioned 70% decline in vertebrates even exceeds the global value.
In invertebrates, an equally dramatic decline was reported by Hallmann et. al 2017. According tot he study the insect biomass faced a decline of more than 75% in the last 27 years in Germany.
Lecturers of the nternational Symposium on Insect Conservation at the Natural History Museum Stuttgart suggested a nine-point-action against insect decline, where they suggest solutions to political stakeholders.
A key point is the demand for a research and education offensive to close the huge gaps in our knowledge on biodiversity. Only then can the dramatic loss of insect biomass be underpinned with information on species. Biodiversity initiatives such as ABOL can significantly contribute to this task.
We are pleased to announce that under the lead of the University of Graz (Dr. Stephan Koblmüller) in cooperation with the Universalmuseum Joanneum (Mag. Wolfgang Paill) and the Ökoteam as economic partner (Dr. Werner Holzinger) another ABOL project has started. In the BRIDGE-1 project BIO-PLANBAR (FFG, BMVIT) the use of DNA barcoding for more efficient species identification in the context of conservation conformity of planning processes of major construction projects will be investigated.
In order to estimate the impact of construction projects on local fauna and flora, a very good knowledge of the organisms is required. As a rule, certain indicator groups are used for this purpose. DNA barcoding might simplify and accelerate the step of species identification and complement classical morphological methods, especially in juveniles, larval stages and eggs. However, the prerequisite for this is as comprehensive high quality reference database. This will be generated and/or completed within the project for relevant groups of animals (for example, bugs, cicadas, spiders, ground beetles).
More information can be found here.
Congratulations to the successful project applicants!
The ABOL coordination team
For all of you who are familiar with social media, we recently initiated a facebook page for ABOL!
https://www.facebook.com/AustrianBarcodeOfLife/
We cordially invite you to contribute and comment frequently. We aim at announcing news about ABOL, along with other postings of general relevance for biodiversity.
Enjoy our page!
Dear ABOL community,
this year again our ABOL meeting took place at the Schlossmuseum Linz – we would like to thank the people from the Upper Austrian State Museums for hosting! We are very happy, that so many of you joined the meeting. A special thank to all the speakers for the interesting talks concerning this year’s main topic “Applied aspects of DNA barcoding”. The talks provided a comprehensive overview of the power of DNA barcoding and stimulated lively discussions.
We hope, that the meeting was interesting and successful for all participants and provided sufficient space for conversations and networking.
Please find some impressions in our picture gallery (photo credits by F. Gusenleitner, H. Sattmann, M. Sonnleitner)
Best wishes,
your ABOL team
As representatives of a DNA-Barcoding-Initiative in Austria we are often asked for the value of barcoding Austrian individuals in species where DNA-Barcodes from other countries are available. The best answer is given by two papers on moths, recently published by the team around Peter Huemer at the Tiroler Landesmuseum. Some species of leafroller-moths were always regarded to have a holarctic distribution. The enhanced international comparability due to DNA-barcoding allowed experts to reveal them to be species-complexes. With Ancylis christiandiana Huemer & Wiesmair, 2016 one species could be described as new to science, based on individuals from Austria. The same is true for a species of fairy longhorn moths which was found to be a complex of 3 species. Of these, Nemophora scopolii Kozlov, Mutanen, Lee & Huemer, 2016, was likewise described from Austria.
References:
Gilligan, T., Huemer, P., & Wiesmair, B. (2016). Different continents, same species? Resolving the taxonomy of some Holarctic Ancylis Hübner (Lepidoptera: Tortricidae). Zootaxa, 4178(3), 347–370.
Kozlov, M. V., Mutanen, M., Lee, K. M., & Huemer, P. (2016). Cryptic diversity in the long-horn moth Nemophora degeerella (Lepidoptera: Adelidae) revealed by morphology, DNA barcodes and genome-wide ddRAD-seq data. Systematic Entomology
Dear supporters of ABOL!
Complementing our current projects on fungi and animals we are happy to announce the start of two associated projects on DNA-barcoding in plants.
A project at the University of Salzburg, headed by Andreas Tribsch, generates DNA barcodes in spring gentians, a morphologically challenging group. DNA barcodes will allow to identify juvenile plants and hybrids in mixed populations (read more…).
A second project aims to characterise plants via DNA barcoding, focussing on groups prone to undetected, cryptic invasions. The Uni-Docs-project will be carried out by Clemens Pachschwöll at the University of Vienna (read more …).
Dear biodiversity community,
Wild bees enjoy increasing awareness in general public, due to several campaigns in the recent past. Austria is known as a biodiversity hotspot of wild bees and many species are especially worthy of protection because of their narrow food spectrum and/or restricted distribution area.
Therefore we are pleased to announce two new associated projects dealing with DNA barcoding of wild bees, which started in the past few weeks.
Read more:
DNA barcoding of selected wild bees
DNA barcoding of wild bees of Vienna
Your ABOL team
Dear ABOL Community,
It was 2004 when Christian & Szeptycki revealed the Leopoldsberg to be the worldwide biodiversity hotspot of Protura, reporting 23 species from the soil of a very dry slope. Applying DNA barcoding to re-assess the diversity of these very small and blind soil dwellers at the genetic level reported 4 additional species from the same locality, one of which was new to science (Resch et al 2014).
This species named Acerentomon christiani is now formally described in a publication (Shrubovych et al. 2016) including the DNA-Barcode in its description.
M. SonnleitnerABOL-BioBlitz at Hohe Tauern National park28. July, 2025 - 16:39Fortunately, the weather in the Hohe Tauern was kind to us this year, from July 18-20, 2025. At the National Park’s Day of Biodiversity, in the Gradental and Gartltal valleys in Carinthia, not only was the weather record-breaking, but so was the number of participating experts, with almost 100 registrations. Many were already out in […]
N. FialABOL at the ÖEG Insect Camp in the Nature Park Hohe Wand14. July, 2025 - 15:39For the fourth time (in a row), ABOL participated in the 11th ÖEG Insect Camp from June 26th to 29th with a BioBlitz. This time, the trip took us to the Hohe Wand Nature Park in Lower Austria – a biogeographically highly interesting region on the northeastern edge of the Alps, where the Pannonian and […]
M. SonnleitnerABOL at the Day of Biodiversity in Baden bei Wien3. July, 2025 - 13:40On June 13 and 14, 2025, the Biosphere Reserve Wienerwald organized its 20th Day of Biodiversity– this year in the Lower Austrian part of the biosphere reserve around Baden bei Wien. Around 100 experts from various disciplines explored the diverse flora, fauna, and funga of the area from the Kurpark to the Lindkogel. In perfect […]
