Projects
ABOL – Coordination of the Austrian Barcode of Life Initiative
The Austrian DNA barcoding initiative ABOL, which has been initiated in 2014, is coordinated at the NHMW under the leadership
of Dr. Elisabeth Haring and Mag. Christoph Hörweg. The project is funded by the Federal Ministry of Education, Science and
Research.
The current biodiversity crisis strongly increases demands on rapid and reliable species identification, which is necessary for any form of biodiversity recording and monitoring. In addition to traditional morphological species identification, DNA barcoding is becoming increasingly important, as this method allows for high levels of standardization and throughput. DNA barcoding is based on the comparison of a species-specific DNA section obtained from the organism to be identified with reference sequences (DNA barcodes) in a database. The essential prerequisite for the application of this method in practice, such as biodiversity monitoring, is a reference database that contains the entire species inventory.
One of the main goals of ABOL is to create this reference data for Austria's animals, plants and fungi and to make it accessible in an international, public database (https://www.boldsystems.org/). The ABOL coordination team at the Natural History Museum Vienna works closely together with many different institutions and people from biodiversity research, e.g. universities, state museums, private species experts, etc. (https://www.abol.ac.at/en/abol-project/). ABOL also ensures dissemination, national and international networking and organizes conferences. The second thematic pillar of ABOL is the establishment and promotion of the practical applications of DNA barcoding. The analyses of mixed samples (metabarcoding) and environmental samples (eDNA metabarcoding) are particularly noteworthy. ABOL also sees itself as a biodiversity project that aims to intensify the network of the Austrian biodiversity community and support taxonomic research.
The current biodiversity crisis strongly increases demands on rapid and reliable species identification, which is necessary for any form of biodiversity recording and monitoring. In addition to traditional morphological species identification, DNA barcoding is becoming increasingly important, as this method allows for high levels of standardization and throughput. DNA barcoding is based on the comparison of a species-specific DNA section obtained from the organism to be identified with reference sequences (DNA barcodes) in a database. The essential prerequisite for the application of this method in practice, such as biodiversity monitoring, is a reference database that contains the entire species inventory.
One of the main goals of ABOL is to create this reference data for Austria's animals, plants and fungi and to make it accessible in an international, public database (https://www.boldsystems.org/). The ABOL coordination team at the Natural History Museum Vienna works closely together with many different institutions and people from biodiversity research, e.g. universities, state museums, private species experts, etc. (https://www.abol.ac.at/en/abol-project/). ABOL also ensures dissemination, national and international networking and organizes conferences. The second thematic pillar of ABOL is the establishment and promotion of the practical applications of DNA barcoding. The analyses of mixed samples (metabarcoding) and environmental samples (eDNA metabarcoding) are particularly noteworthy. ABOL also sees itself as a biodiversity project that aims to intensify the network of the Austrian biodiversity community and support taxonomic research.
Coordination team: Dr. Nikolaus Szucsich (ABOL manager), Dr. Michaela Sonnleitner (Taxonomic coordination), Florian Ackerl, M.Sc. (e-infrastruktur manager), Victoria Kargl, M.Sc. (BioBlitz coordination)
Website: https://www.abol.ac.at/en/homepage_en/
