Maarten De Brauwer

🚨 Calling all eDNA folks! 🚨

The 2027 Southern #eDNA Society Conference is coming to Canberra.

We’re forming the Organising Committee—keen on science, comms, logistics, or hosting? Get in touch or tag a mate! Let’s make this a good one.

@sednasociety.bsky.social

Building Better eDNA Tools: National Survey on Infrastructure Gaps The Australian BioCommons (https://www.biocommons.org.au) is a national digital infrastructure initiative helping life science researchers accelerate their ability to understand the molecular basis of...

🧬 💻 Help shape the future of national eDNA analysis support

Australian BioCommons & SeDNAs have launched a short survey to identify the computational and bioinformatics needs of our community.

Your input will guide future investments—don’t miss the chance to have your say!
👉 tinyurl.com/yc3eu2ns

📣 New paper! 📣

We summarise the outputs of last year's @sednasociety.bsky.social Airborne eDNA Workshop & chart a path for airborne eDNA as a transformative tool for #biodiversity, #biosecurity & #conservation.

🔗 tinyurl.com/4a8vb6ja

#eDNA #airDNA #SeDNAS

🌊 Read the latest from our SPS SG members Dr David Booth and @maartendb.bsky.social! The paper looks at what we know and don’t know about leafy, common and ruby seadragons, and what’s needed to better protect them 💙.

🔗📖Dive in: link.springer.com/article/10.1...

#Seadragons #SavingIconicFishes

🧬 Membership renewals are now open for the 2025–2026 financial year!

If you're passionate about environmental DNA (eDNA) and want to stay connected, now’s the time to renew (or join!) SeDNAs 🧬🌏

Benefits of being a member👇

Research Officer, Environmental DNA Laboratory - Townsville, QLD, Australia James Cook University (JCU) is creating a brighter future for life in the Tropics and beyond, through education and research that makes a difference locally and globally.  We now have an opportunity a...

The TropWATER eDNA lab (JCU) is looking for a Postdoc Research Fellow for a full-time, 2-yr role on applied biosecurity & biodiversity monitoring projects across Nth Aus. Join a passionate team applying eDNA tools to real-world conservation and management challenges.

tinyurl.com/bdh43rum

From surprise platypus to wandering cane toads, here’s what we found hiding in NSW estuaries Researchers worked with Indigenous Rangers to map life in 34 estuaries across NSW using environmental DNA - and made a host of unexpected discoveries.

Curious about what lives in NSW (Australia) estuaries?

We established a new open access baseline with more than 10,000 taxa for >250 sites using #eDNA methods.

Short summary online today with links to video and a site map

theconversation.com/from-surpris...

@sednasociety.bsky.social

New paper alert! Read the latest from Dr. David Booth, (lead author and our SPS SG member) on the unprecedented mass stranding of weedy seadragons in Sydney — impacts, causes, and what it means for the future. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10....

I finally have some time to start exploring the BIG #eDNA dataset I've been collecting the past year, and it is looking spicy!

>7000 taxa in 33 estuaries (>2,000 samples) across 1,100km of coastline = great step towards mapping biodiversity in Australian estuaries

@wilderlab.bsky.social

🚨 NEW PAPER 🚨

Real-Time PCR Assay and Environmental DNA Workflow for Detecting Irukandji Jellyfish, Malo bella (Cubozoa)

Led by Jess Strickland, this study presents a new #eDNA assay for detecting M. bella - a small but nasty Irukandji jellyfish found along WA’s Ningaloo Reef

tinyurl.com/3yvvnxzc

A four-panel comic. First panel has art of an argonaut (octopus in a coiled shell) riding a jellyfish, and the text "THE ARGONAUT is the octopus cowgirl of the sea, riding jellies, salps, and even driftwood. AMAZING!" Second panel zooms out to show two brown octopuses in the foreground, watching the argonaut and jelly in the background. One of the octopuses is eating a crab. The nose of a shark is just poking into view at the right side of the panel. In the third panel, the jelly is drifting out of view, and more of the shark is visible. The octopus who was eating passes its food to its friend and says, "Hold my crab." In the fourth panel, the octopus is riding the shark, waving one arm and yelling "YEEHAW!" while its friend watches. The shark looks deeply unimpressed.

Remember the shark-riding octopus? youtu.be/F9osYO9VRlg?...
I made a comic about it (which is also about argonauts because they're the best; here's an article I wrote if you want to know more about the cowgirls of the sea: octonation.com/should-you-p...)
🦑🐡

Just completed 3 weeks in the field assessing the impacts of the floods caused by tropical cyclone Alfred

Estuaries in northern NSW copped it pretty bad. First #eDNA results expected mid May

🧬 Big steps for biodiversity science in northern Australia!

In June 2024, 55 experts came together to assess the status of DNA barcode libraries for the region’s unique species. Their insights are now available online, offering a roadmap to strengthen our genetic reference data.

Have you heard? We're challenging the Environment Minister’s failure to make Recovery Plans for threatened species in court.

So why do Recovery Plans matter? Take a deep dive into what this case means in this article by @euanritchie.bsky.social.👇

#australia #wildlife #threatenedspecies

📢 Announcement: Environmental DNA is excited to announce a call for papers for several upcoming special issues! 🌱🔬

What a fish! 🤩

The halimeda ghost pipefish (Solenostomus halimeda) will forever be one of my favourite critters!

#critters #fish

Job ad: Senior Ecologist with Sydney Water This is a great opportunity for a Senior Ecologist to join the high-performing and collaborative Environment and Heritage Services team. You will be responsible for providing ecological advice and conducting biodiversity assessment to support the approval of infrastructure projects along the asset value chain. Your subject matter expertise will also support strategic and operational business needs.

Job ad: Ecologist South Australia with Bush Heritage Fantastic opportunity to work within a leading conservation organisation. The Ecologist will be responsible for development and implementation of the science and ecology programs. It is expected that this position will be available to support Bush Heritage partnerships in conservation, pastoral and Indigenous Protected Area sectors.

Student opportunity: PHD - multiple opportunities We offer up to four PhD projects with scholarships in the project ‘Community completeness in monitoring of post-mining restoration success’. The project is a collaboration between researchers from The University of Western Australia, Murdoch University, University of Tartu, Estonia and University of Camerino, Italy, as well as two mining industry partners – Iluka Resources Ltd and Alcoa of Australia Ltd. This collaborative research between ecologists, statisticians, computer scientists and restoration practitioners will investigate why particular plant species and plant functions are absent from post-mining vegetation, using the ecological concepts of species pools, dark diversity, and community completeness.

Student opportunity: PHD: Measuring ecosystem recovery and conservation impact The project will involve conducting assessments for several threatened ecosystems to measure how close they are to ‘full recovery’, their past conservation legacy, and their recovery potential. The student will contribute to a broader project that is working to develop a global standard for measuring ecosystem recovery, similar to the Green Status of Species.

🌸 OPPORTUNITIES FOR ECOLOGISTS | MARCH 🌸⁠
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Check out this roundup of exciting jobs, scholarships and volunteer opportunities —your next adventure starts here!⁠
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See the full range of opportunities (many more!) online now tinyurl.com/4s2vc5t9
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#EcologyCareers #EnvironmentalJobs #Hiring #ecology

#eDNA conference in New Zealand, monitoring estuaries in Australia, and now looking for new species of pipefish in the Philippines...

The past 3 weeks have been busy but very varied!

Amphibians, illustrated here by a frog species from Venezuela, received less than 3% of the conservation funding over the 25-year period studied. CREDIT: Benoit Guénard

Vertebrates receive 82.9% of conservation funding, according to a study of @IUCN data, with large-bodied mammals receiving the largest shares. Algae and fungi received less than 0.2% of funding. The authors call for this bias to be addressed. In PNAS: www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Last week, we wrapped up the 2nd AU-NZ #eDNA conference in Wellington

321 attendees from 25 countries, including >100 ECRs, showcased the dynamic eDNA world

Shoutout to the committee, Conference Design, our sponsors and exhibitors. Couldn't have done it without you!

See you in Canberra 2027!

Learn more about South Australia's new university for the future.

"We are seeking a motivated, capable and skilled technician with experience in providing specialist laboratory and technical support to the South Australian Regional Facility for Molecular Ecology and Evolution (SARFMEE)"

Wrapping up the final science session at #SeDNA2025, Chris Meyer from the Smithsonian shares the US's National Aquatic #eDNA Strategy

Goals: Co-ordinate ➡️ Build ➡️ Apply

"We need to be more efficient and effective with the resources we have"

#eDNA needs to explain that we NEED #taxonomists, especially when it comes to #national #reference #databases. Jenny Giles chats about #Aussie #sequencing #campaigns #SeDNA2025

@maartendb.bsky.social suggests a #lab #effect (commercial lab providers may show different results) when every lab does their own thing, but we still see the same #ecological #patterns. #SeDNA2025

@maartendb.bsky.social, @sednasociety.bsky.social boardember, kicking off the final day of #SeDNA2025!

@maartendb.bsky.social and I reppin’ @csiro.bsky.social

Gracie Kroos is using #eDNA to answer the eternally tricky question: "Where is Wallaby?" #SeDNA2025

@clare-edna.bsky.social is plucking whole mtgenomes from eDNA samples 🤯 - setting the stage for pop gen!

#SeDNA2025

Come find me at #SeDNA2025 and check out my #airDNA Trail Cam in-person or feel free to download the STL files to test yourself!