Sarah Adamowicz - Edit 1
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- In our lab group, we're really
interested in biodiversity.
So we're interested
in the evolutionary of history
you know, how did species evolve,
how did different
types of biodiversity evolve.
We're interested in biodiversity
in the present,
so where are species found,
how do they interact,
why are they there, and we're also
interested in the future of biodiversity.
What kinds of organisms might be
at risk with environmental change,
how might geographic distributions
change over time
with environmental change.
So we're really interested in those
different dimensions of biodiversity.
We bring molecular tools to the study
of biodiversity.
So by using DNA based methods,
we can study biodiversity
in much more detail than what's
possible before,
including very small organisms
that are often overlooked
such as insects which are really
important for
global biodiversity in total as well as
many ecosystems services
that we rely on.
So instead of actually having
to catch an organism,
which can be time-consuming
and can stress out the organism
we can take a sample of water,
filter the water
and study trace amounts of DNA
that are present in the water
to get a DNA based signature of what
biodiversity is in that water body.
Certainly, there are many utilitarian
arguments for understanding
and protecting biodiversity.
The natural world provides us
with so many things including
pollination services for the
agricultural systems we rely upon.
Clean air and water, for example,
are other major ecosystem services
provided by biodiversity.
We can use DNA based methods to
get more detail about the biodiversity
and also to get answers faster
and at a finer scale.
So that's one of the ways in which
I'm interested in translating
what we're doing here
at the university setting
into broader application in society
to help to support
environmental health more broadly
in society.