Results

We are excited to share some of our main achievements to date.

Main achievements

The Barcode Galapagos project in numbers:

COVID-19 RESILIENCE: 74 Galapagueños (45% women) employed by the project to contribute to citizen science activities and four additional people employed at a later stage.

LOCAL CAPACITY: Three molecular laboratories (Santa Cruz, San Cristobal, and Isabela) equipped with state-of-the-art sequencing technology to process and produce genetic data locally.

EDUCATION: 55 students (12-17 years old), from local schools attended workshops on molecular biology.

TRAINING: More than 90 hours of training provided in key fieldwork and laboratory topics.

SCIENCE: 150 locations sampled for microbiome and environmental DNA (eDNA) on three islands: Santa Cruz, San Cristobal and Isabela.

SCIENCE: More than 1000 samples collected during 2021 for barcode and metabarcode processing.

GOAL: Our goal is to empower the local community in science and conservation through local capacity building to create a resilient socioeconomic system.

Number of visitors to Galapagos 2019-2021 and the stages of the Galapagos Barcode project.

Context

At the beginning of March 2020, travel restrictions were established around the world and between islands in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The values highlighted in red boxes correspond to the two points where visitor numbers recovered to pre-pandemic levels: October 2019 and October 2021.

Genetic Code Projects

Related projects:

Environmental DNA (eDNA): Characterisation of biodiversity of the different island ecosystems through the use of environmental DNA that is collected from a variety of environmental samples (water, soil, sediment), with a focus on marine-coastal ecosystems.

Microbiomes: The study of soil and plant microbial diversity (hidden diversity) along an altitudinal gradient in Isabela, Santa Cruz, and San Cristobal Islands.

Insects: Identification at the genus and species level of the invertebrate collection of the Galapagos Biosafety and Control Agency.

Other projects: Marine mammal, bird, elasmobranch (sharks and rays), and invertebrate projects for population genetic studies.