FAQs

To build an enduring data infrastructure to accurately identify Australia’s species based on their DNA, including eDNA, into the future. The initiative will bring immense national benefit, including:

• enabling the interpretation of DNA found in water, soil or air samples for rapid, affordable environmental monitoring at scale,
• detecting invasive species before they become established,
• furthering our understanding of Australian biodiversity, and
• amplifying the value of specimens in our national collections.

The NBDL is freely available to the public for non-commercial purposes. Our users will include researchers, state and federal governments, environmental scientists, taxonomists, industry representatives and citizen scientists, bringing impact across research, fisheries, biosecurity, environmental management, agriculture and education sectors. 

NBDL data is for non-commercial use only. Applicable licencing information and required attribution statements are provided in the relevant pages of the portal.

In the NBDL portal you can search, explore, view and download available sequence data and corresponding information about the specimens from which the sequence data were derived. You can also query your unknown DNA sequences of interest against the NBDL.

The NBDL targets a full set of DNA sequences suited to the taxonomic identification of unknown material, including overcoming the significant reference data challenges of interpreting very small fragments of DNA recovered from the environment. For animals, the NBDL is generating complete (or mostly complete) mitochondrial genome DNA sequences and nuclear ribosomal markers. For plants and macroalgae, the NBDL is generating complete (or mostly complete) plastid (chloroplast) genome DNA sequences and nuclear ribosomal markers. The NBDL data targets include gene regions used in traditional barcoding approaches, including COI. This comprehensive approach allows the use of multiple gene regions and the design of new markers. To support complementary research, the NBDL prioritises specimens for which further genomic data has already been generated and can be linked to in the portal.

The NBDL hosts authoritative DNA sequences generated from specimens identified by taxonomic experts held in Australian museums and herbaria. These sequences are linked directly to metadata from the collection in which the specimen is held, ensuring the taxonomic identification keeps pace with any revisions over time. Our sequences are reviewed by experts in the contributing collections and verified alongside the specimen’s morphological characters. DNA sequences generated by the NBDL form an integral part of the digital extended specimen concept, which aims to enhance physical voucher specimens held in our national collections with additional data layers. 

In our first set of externally funded sequencing campaigns, we aim to include up to three specimens of each included species.

Existing online public DNA repositories, including NCBI’s GenBank, offer a remarkable resource of DNA sequence data to the global research community. Despite the immense strengths of these databases, eDNA scientists and other practitioners routinely find that they lack sufficient reference material to accurately interpret their data. The NBDL is designed specifically to address the challenges that practitioners routinely face when using publicly available repositories to identify taxa in Australia: coverage of Australia’s rich biodiversity, marker coverage and taxonomic accuracy.

Our vision is to host data for all macroscopic, multicellular species of Australian animals, plants and other key groups represented in Australia’s biological collections. We also host data from invasive species that are already in Australia, or that are of concern to Australia, working with local and foreign collections. We have kicked off this ambitious effort through an initial series of targeted, externally funded campaigns. Each campaign focuses on specific taxonomic groups, biogeographic regions or use cases. Our current campaigns can be found here, and include marine vertebrates, marine invertebrates, macroalgae, and seagrasses, priority plant and aquatic pests, among others. We are also working with prior and existing genomic initiatives to obtain and serve our data targets, and with past and current scientific expeditions.

Not directly. The NBDL’s purpose is to build a definitive DNA reference library for species that are already described. Our goal in this respect is to showcase and make the wealth of knowledge created by taxonomic experts accessible to a wider audience via the medium of DNA. By supporting fast and accurate identification of all or most species that are already named, the NBDL will assist the taxonomic community in identifying and describing new Australian species.

The NBDL operates through targeted campaigns designed to support specific use cases and define clear sequencing goals. We collaborate with industry, government, and philanthropic partners to fund and deliver these campaigns. If you’re interested in supporting priority organism groups, please contact us.

Given our stringent requirements for data inclusion, the NBDL will generate most data de novo. If you have whole mitochondrial genomes, plastid genomes or nuclear ribosomal data generated from specimens that are catalogued in an Australian museum or herbarium, please contact us. We would love to hear from you.

No, the NBDL itself does not carry out eDNA studies, or store eDNA data or samples.

No, but we strongly support ongoing efforts to make eDNA data FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable), and the development of best practice guidelines for formatting and publishing eDNA data. Your eDNA sequence data and DNA-derived species occurrence records can be published at Sequence Read Archive and GBIF, respectively.

Linking DNA sequence data to a vouchered specimen forms part of the extended specimen concept, where an interconnected network of data can bridge disciplines and databases. The NBDL complements and enhances the work of Australia’s biological collections by increasing the richness and accessibility of the digital extended specimen linked to physical vouchers. Collections staff can use these new data in their research in a range of ways, and we anticipate the portal will reduce the increasing burden on collections staff to field individual tissue requests from eDNA researchers and others seeking data for diagnostic applications.

By providing trusted data with high coverage for Australia’s known species, we are also enabling confident differentiation of known species from those not yet known to science. The NBDL will allow the increasing volume of eDNA observational datasets from Australia’s ecosystems from all sectors to be directly compared to each other. This vast body of data will, in turn, accelerate the discovery and description of new species by taxonomic experts and the addition of specimens from these new species to our national collections.

By partnering with the NBDL and other national biodiversity and biomonitoring initiatives, collections showcase the vital role they play in understanding, monitoring and protecting our natural world. Through the NBDL, our collections allow more accurate data to be gathered about the state of our ecosystems, bringing greater certainty to biosecurity and environmental decision-making, and underscoring the huge monetary value and national benefit of Australia’s curated specimens.