eDNA Ashore: Building a Coral Genetic Library
The Ocean Exploration Trust team is proud to work on E/V Nautilus alongside our collaborators across the Ocean Exploration Cooperative Institute. As we explore the unknown with new efficiencies, we are helping to understand the biodiversity of the deep sea. And one of the most rapidly advancing new technologies for investigating the field is the study of environmental DNA (eDNA).
Advancing eDNA technologies opens up future capabilities to detect the presence of animals without collecting the animals themselves. In part two of following eDNA samples ashore, meet Dr. Santiago Herrera and his lab group at Lehigh University. Alongside OECI collaborators at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, this team is working to build a genetic reference library to correlate micro pieces of DNA left behind by residents of the deep with verified on-the-ground coral biodiversity!
Exploring the Offshore Marianas
Update: Ongoing mechanical repair of a ship system has changed operational plans for the NA172 expedition, postponing the water column exploration and remotely operated vehicles portion of this expedition within the Mariana Trench Marine National Monument.
E Mamana Ou Gataifale II - American Samoa
American Samoa is the southernmost U.S. territory, centered in the South Pacific, 2,300 miles southwest of Hawaiʻi, and 1,500 miles northeast of New Zealand. It is home to the cradle of Polynesia’s oldest culture.
E Mamana Ou Gataifale I - American Samoa
Over the last three years, the Ocean Exploration Cooperative Institute has been advancing the integration of multiple exploration technologies aboard E/V Nautilus, and this year, we bring these new capacities to American Samoa.
