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    • dartR Version 2 release
    • Environomics Newsletter October 2021
    • Recovery of good quality DNA from preserved specimens
    • Non-lethal age estimation helps manage wild fish populations
    • Testing DNA in Australian honey reveals floral sources
    • Environomics newsletter May 2021
    • Understanding the function of marine microbes
    • Uncovering the genomes of sea turtles
    • Making environmental DNA (eDNA) biodiversity records globally accessible
    • A study on recovering useable DNA from formalin-fixed fish specimens
    • Age prediction in zebrafish
    • Passive eDNA collection is fast and effective
    • Environomics Newsletter October 2020
    • Patents pending – Some Novel Environmental Applications for DNA
    • Lifespans of marine turtle species range from 50 to 90 years
    • Redefining life expectancy and maximum lifespan for wildlife management
    • Rust is an expensive problem
    • Mainstreaming Microbes across Biomes
    • Measuring Biodiversity with eDNA
    • Environomics Newsletter June 2020
    • Museum epigenetics: Charting the future by unlocking the past
    • The first evidence is in, in the case of mysterious microbes
    • A genomic predictor of lifespan in vertebrates
    • Unlocking the secrets of mysterious microbes
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    • Environomics Newsletter December 2019
    • Environomics Newsletter May 2019
    • Gold-coated fungi are the new gold diggers
    • Nature unites us
    • Marine eDNA can be used to monitor biodiversity in the world’s oceans
    • A Superabundance of Antarctic Algae Killers
    • Environmental health monitoring would benefit from eDNA biobanking
    • Microscopic DNA analyses on a gigantic scale
    • How does temperature determine sex?
    • New R software for population genomics
    • How fisheries interact with seabirds
    • Measuring animal age with DNA methylation
    • The soil remembers
    • Understanding how sea turtles react to heat stress
    • Sex changes in reptiles
  • Workshops and training
    • Amplicon Analysis Workshop 2019
    • Environomics Science Showcase
    • A course on Population Genomics of SNP data in R
    • Molecular Sensing Symposium
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  • Environomics in practice
  • eDNA guidelines
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Environomics

Using genomics, bioinformatics and nano-technologies, Environomics is finding new resources in nature and reinventing how we measure and monitor ecosystem health, change and threats.

Our research projects
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What is the Environomics Future Science Platform?

 

Environomics (environmental genomics) is a CSIRO research and development program exploring the limits of what is possible at the intersection of genomics and environmental science.

By taking advantage of the genomics technology revolution, Environomics is creating new technologies and knowhow for better natural resource management in Australia and elsewhere. Environomics is also finding new genetic resources in nature and developing techniques for taking advantage of them.

Environomics is a collaborative venture bringing together experts in molecular biology, ecology and big data science from CSIRO and the university sector.

Transcript available from: https://www.csiro.au/NCMI/Vimeo/environomics-animation/video-transcript

An introduction to the CSIRO’s Environomics Future Science Platform

Why it matters

Australia is a mega-diverse country. Our biodiversity is beautiful and immensely valuable. It provides billions of dollars in revenue and jobs, and unique resource for innovation, science and industry.

Maintaining our biological resources is challenging. Conventional tools for understanding, monitoring and responding to environmental needs rarely offer the detail, scalability and speed that decision makers need.

“Hidden within Australia’s biodiversity are genetic resources to enhance crops, new materials for manufacturing and insights into biological processes that can give industries an edge and environmental managers vital insights into how ecosystems work”.

What genomics offers environmental science

The genomics technology revolution emerged during the past decade from the convergence of advances in molecular biology, nano-engineering and data science. It has changed the face of life sciences and revolutionised medicine.

DNA is the original “big data”. It can tell us an animal or plant’s identity, condition and function, its species, how it’s feeling and what it does in the ecosystem! Just like in medicine where genomic diagnostics can help us understand and cure diseases, the information in DNA can be used to measure and understand the natural world.

Environomics in practice

Scientists can now rapidly and inexpensively read and understand the function of entire genomes belonging to wild animals, plants and microbes. We can do this for whole ecological communities without even seeing or capturing them. We can use autonomous vehicles like drones to do it “on the fly”. Our quick and non-invasive ways to collect detailed information about nature creates many useful opportunities, for example:

  • quickly and accurately identify species and map their distributions
  • measure the stresses organisms experience and track environmental health
  • identify novel functions organisms perform within ecosystems and make use of them.

The Environomics Future Science Platform (Environomics FSP) is exploring these and other emerging applications of genomics to environmental science. Please check out our science portfolio for just some examples of what is possible.

Transcript available from: https://www.csiro.au/Vimeo/environomics_second/video-transcript

Find out how we are using new genomics technologies to solve environmental problems.

Our research themes

A chart of letters with different colours highlighting similar groupings of the letters.

Genomic resources

We have three major areas of discovery underway to explore and advance our ability to maximise the use of environmental genomic resources.

Advanced environmental applications

We are exploring emerging applications of genomics to environmental science.

Next-generation bioinformatics

We are developing new tools and methods to solve the unique data analysis challenges created by large genomic datasets.

News

A close -up view of a single yellow daisy like flower with a fly sitting in the middle of it.

Pollinator networks in nature

A team of our pollination researchers have recently published their results from a study about what drives structure and beta diversity in a plant–pollinator metacommunity from the Australian alpine region using two approaches: pollen DNA metabarcoding (MB) and observations.

dartR Version 2 release

The extensive improvements now available in dartR Version 2 makes it even easier to analyse large genomic datasets.

Environomics Newsletter October 2021

Read our latest newsletter, featuring research, people, the first eDNA conference and jobs.

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The Environomics FSP leader is Dr Oliver Berry.

Acknowlegements

 

The work of the  Environomics FSP is made possible through the generous support of Bioplatforms Australia.

Our partners

The Environomics FSP is hosted by CSIRO’s National Collections and Marine Infrastructure (NCMI) business unit and our partners business units are Oceans & Atmosphere, Land & Water, Data61, Health & Biosecurity, Agriculture & Food, and NCMI. We also work with staff from the Manufacturing business unit.

Our external partners include Bioplatforms Australia , Atlas of Living Australia , Integrated Marine Observing System, Centre for Biodiversity Analysis(ANU),  Curtin University TrEnD Lab, University of Canberra Institute for Applied Ecology, along with international collaboration networks such as 1000 Insects Transcriptomes Project , 10 000 Bird Genomes Project , and the Earth Microbiome Project

At CSIRO, we solve the greatest challenges through innovative science and technology.

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