The PMEL Genetics and Genomics Group (G3) seeks to survey, describe, and understand oceanic biological community responses to physical and chemical oceanographic parameters. We use state-of-the-art targeted metagenomics with custom bioinformatics, and other approaches to identify, quantify, and assess communities of invertebrates and fishes, and their food chains over their geographic ranges, time, and life histories. This knowledge aims to help enhance the U.S. blue economy and contributes to the NOAA mission to conserve and manage our coastal and marine ecosystems and resources.
What's Happening
G3 research is partnering with the Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary (OCNMS) to better understand how marine communities are affected by physical and chemical oceanographic processes, under changing environmental conditions such as those experienced by the Olympic Coast of Washington and surrounding areas. Through this collaboration, we are monitoring biological community responses to rapidly changing ocean conditions through application of cutting-edge conservation science from the field of genetics and genomics. This work is highly supportive of and complementary to OCNMS research, including the long term coastal mooring program, and promises to contribute foundational information that will further support the implementation of a sentinel site for ocean acidification.
This partnership research addresses NOAA marine sanctuary goals related to Collaborative Research and... more
Feature Publication
Adult zebra mussel Dreissena polymorpha (left) and quagga mussel D. rostriformis (right).
Identifying species and population genetic compositions of biological invasions at early life stages and/or from environmental (e)DNA using targeted high-throughput sequencing (HTS) metabarcode assays offers powerful and cost-effective means for... more