Basic knowledge of the spatiotemporal occurrence of populations in marine ecosystems of species is essential for their management. While traditional population identification methods have often failed to resolve these issues, genomic methods have revealed clarity in the identification of marine populations, and the underlying mechanisms tunings their distributions. A key player in ecosystems throughout the north-eastern Atlantic having a complex population structure is the commercially important and highly valued Atlantic herring (Clupea harengus).

HERPOPS, based on the use of innovative genomic research, including wild populations with up to 100 years of data, will explore the processes influencing population structure in relation to climate change of herring. A recently established genomic method using population-diagnostic single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers will be used to identify the population of origin for individual herring. By applying this genomic method over a large-scale area, both in space and time, this project will obtain completely new and in-depth information about the spatiotemporal distribution of herring populations. Furthermore, HERPOPS will apply environmental DNA (eDNA) analyses to identify small-scale dynamics of spring and autumn spawning herring on a local spawning ground. This will help to answer if spawning type switching is a prevalent trait affecting metapopulation dynamics.

HERPOPS aims to take the advantage of the new knowledge to assess the abundance of different populations having a dynamic mixing. Genomic results will be directly implemented by new novel research on assessment models and future management strategies to secure long-term sustainable exploitation while maintaining intraspecific biodiversity. The project outcomes will have a direct impact on the advisory process for several populations inhabiting the different ecosystems.

This project will expand access to marine biodiversity knowledge, particularly in underrepresented regions, while strengthening engagement with the ocean worldwide. Building on the success of the first eDNA expeditions (2022-2024), this new phase will scale up sampling efforts, increase data collection frequency, and broaden taxonomic coverage to achieve a full tree-of-life biodiversity analysis.

By ensuring rapid data turnaround and integration with global databases, in particular OBIS, the project will make eDNA data more accessible and useful. The eDNA data will be used for the development of indicators, increasing the benefit of eDNA data at large. Education will be central to the initiative and will foster local ownership, and build technical capacity to monitor and protect marine biodiversity in the face of climate change.

Whales and polar bears in a petri dish: decoding marine mammal toxicology through in vitro and in silico approaches

Large marine mammals, including polar bears and whales, fill important niches as mid or top predators in marine food chains. Their high energy intake is often accompanied with elevated levels of contaminants having bioaccumulating and biomagnifying properties.

Although receiving a lot of public attention, the massive hunting of large marine mammals over the last centuries turned these into threatened, rare, and, as a result, poorly studied animals. Further research investigating the individual and collective consequences of contaminant exposure is needed and would help to better understand effects of contaminants on population dynamics and help the resurgence of these large and important animals. To date, only a handful of studies have given mechanistic insights in contaminant response in marine mammals.

Over the last couple of years, we have established alternative approaches to overcome these hurdles through a unique collaboration between marine mammal scientists, environmental chemists, bioinformaticians, and molecular toxicologists. In this project we want to exploit our position at the leading edge of this research to go deeper and wider into the field of marine mammal toxicology.

Furthermore, we want to communicate scientific knowledge about the threats of anthropogenic stressors, with a focus on environmental pollution, to marine mammals to the public and to stakeholders via existing communication platforms (web, social media, conferences, press) and displays at relevant museums and science centers. 

Marma-Detox was introduced in Webinar 1 of the OBON Projects Wave 2025 series – view on YouTube.

While not exclusively focused on marine environments, AM’s marine dataset includes over >9,000 samples (water, sediment, hosts) and describes microbial assemblages in the southern hemisphere from latitudes 0 to 66°S, longitudes 74°E to 174°W, temperatures -1.6 to 31.4°C and water depths 0 to 6,015 m. This dataset combines one-off spatial samples and long-term temporal observations from key locations in Australian shelf waters (e.g., IMOS National Reference Stations), coasts and estuaries, as well as repeated oceanographic transects (e.g., Southern Ocean Time Series, GO-SHIP). These time-series data underpin national-scale monitoring of ocean health, biogeochemistry, and productivity, supporting sites of ecological, economic, and public health significance. AM’s open, collaborative structure and growing capabilities position it as a crucial platform for understanding and managing Australia’s microbial biodiversity.

The Oceania region is often underrepresented in global initiatives and through becoming an Ocean Decade-endorsed project under OBON and connecting with the OBON community we seek to enhance collaboration and contribute this critical regional dataset to OBON’s global network of biomolecular observing capacity.

We would like to acknowledge the contribution of the Australian Microbiome consortium in the generation of data. The Australian Microbiome initiative is supported by funding from Bioplatforms Australia and the Integrated Marine Observing System (IMOS) through the Australian Government’s National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy (NCRIS), Parks Australia through the Bush Blitz program funded by the Australian Government and BHP, and the CSIRO.

While possible for smaller species, it obligates the capture and restraint of these individuals, which can be logistically challenging for researchers, and stressful for the animal. Thus, the most widely used sampling technique for free-ranging cetaceans remains remote tissue biopsying, which is considered invasive, even if minimally, as it causes a small lesion on the animal. Nevertheless, in recent years, novel and promising ways of examining whale health are being developed using cetacean exhaled breath or “blow”, collected non-invasively – from the detection of hormones and other metabolites, microbiological studies, genetic markers to determine sex, species, or individual identification and there is strong potential to be used for the discovery of new biomarkers of health. In human medicine, the potential of microRNAs (miRNAs) as non-invasive biomarkers in biological fluids, including exhaled breath condensates, has been well established20. As such many model species already have miRNAomes available; however, miRNAs have not been carefully studied in wildlife species, including cetaceans. The development of miRNAs as novel non-invasive biomarkers of cetacean physiology could revolutionise the field. BLOWOMICS Thus, aims to: 1) provide a well-defined and characterised miRNAome for different tissues of cetaceans; 2) test the potential of using miRNA biomarkers in cetacean blow to address key knowledge gaps in free-swimming large cetaceans and 3) develop an ʻopen accessʼ database for cetacean miRNA resources to facilitate data sharing and advancements worldwide.

The aim of PASTIME is to use molecular tools to get a better understanding of the impact of environmental change on marine biodiversity. Longterm observations are needed to learn about the sensitivity of organisms to environmental change and to differentiate natural fluctuations in community composition from long-term trends towards ecosystem change. Since such data are often rare, in PASTIME we will use sedimentary ancient DNA to go back in time and trace changes in past biodiversity in reponse to past environmental changes in Norwegian fjords. Marine sedimentary ancient DNA is environmental DNA that has accumulated over time on the seafloor and was preserved in marine sediments and that represents a unique window into the past.

Norwegian fjords are undergoing rapid changes due to the interlinked effects of climate change (e.g., increasing water temperatures, decrease in sea ice in the Arctic, decrease in oxygen levels) and direct anthropogenic stressors (e.g., aquaculture). In PASTIME we will deploy ancient DNA sequencing in combination with paleoecological reconstructions on sediment cores from Norwegian fjords to assess how communities changed over the last centuries from a preindustrial to a modern state in response to these pressures. This will allow us to get insights into the pristine state of the ecosystem, the extent of change since the onset of anthropogenic pressures, and provide an important step towards improving predictions about future ecosystem changes.

Through the application and further development of the ancient DNA method for tracing marine biodiversity changes over time, PASTIME directly aligns with the goal of OBON to advance biomolecular observations to create new knowledge on marine biodiversity and maintain a healthy ocean for the future.

PASTIME was introduced in Webinar 6 of the OBON Network Spotlight series – view on YouTube.

As a UN Ocean Decade-endorsed project, ANEMONE Global aligns with OBON’s mission to improve global ocean biomolecular observing capabilities. Through its open-access eDNA database (ANEMONE DB), the project contributes to long-term biodiversity assessments and international policy efforts. ANEMONE Global is led by Tohoku University, Japan, and welcomes broader collaboration.

ANEMONE was introduced in Webinar 6 of the OBON Network Spotlight series – view on YouTube.

The structure and biogeochemical properties of planktonic ecosystems are studied in detail with each cruise spanning more than 100° of latitude with depths of 1000 m and crossing a range of ecosystems from sub-polar to tropical, and from eutrophic seas and upwelling systems to oligotrophic gyres. Molecular data has been collected since 2009 by several institutes, and a key aim of AMT-omics is to make these data more accessible in both raw and processed formats. Working together with the University of Southern California, St Francis Xavier University, The University of California (Irvine), the University of Stellenbosch and the Marine Biological Association of the UK, we will determine how molecular data collected using a variety of methods can be integrated to provide invaluable long-term time-series of data across the entire Atlantic Ocean. As future AMT cruises will increasingly rely on automated sampling, molecular-derived data will become a primary data source, replacing data collected from traditional techniques, we will determine if/how traditional and molecular-based datasets can be aligned, ensuring time-series can continue albeit using different methods.

Support and training of Early Career Researchers (ECR) molecular and bioinformatics skills was offered through a POGO-sponsored fellowship on board the 2024 AMT Cruise.

Fellow report/testimonial in Feb 2025 POGO Newsletter: https://mailchi.mp/f4d81d47f65c/pogo-quarterly-newsletter-issue-59-feb-25#Shipboard_Testimonials

AMT-omics was introduced in Webinar 5 of the OBON Network Spotlight series – view on YouTube.

The ATLASea project aims to sequence genomes of marine species in French Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), enhancing understanding of diverse life forms.

Coordinated by CEA and CNRS, it will sequence reference genomes for at least 3,900 marine species in metropolitan and 600 in overseas areas, focusing on threatened, scientifically or economically significant ecosystems. The project involves collecting samples, high-quality DNA sequencing, and data management and analysis. Its goals include monitoring marine biodiversity and discovering new biological materials for biotech applications. The data will be freely available and will support research in evolution, genetics, and biochemistry, benefiting aquaculture, agriculture, and medical fields. ATLASea is part of global initiatives such as the European Reference Genome Initiative (ERGA) and the Earth Biogenome Project (EBP), aligning with the European Union’s sustainable blue economy initiatives and the United Nation Ocean Decade Programme.

ATLASea was introduced in Webinar 1 of the OBON Network Spotlight series – view on YouTube.

Objectives include aligning eDNA methods for better comparability of ocean observing platforms, developing bioinformatic workflows and metadata standards to support eDNA method adoption, and establishing best practices for large-scale biomolecular monitoring. Key short-term priorities are completing eDNA sampling methods comparison to identify optimal approaches, sequencing mitogenomes of ecologically important taxa to enhance DNA reference libraries, and disseminating recommended protocols for eDNA work. Example topics include the impacts of ocean acidification and hypoxia, detection and forecasting of harmful algal blooms (HABs), and fisheries and protected species assessments.

WC-OBON was introduced in Webinar 3 of the OBON Network Spotlight series – view on YouTube.

WC-OBON publishes marine DNA guide

WC-OBON brought together taxonomic and molecular experts to produce a detailed guide on standardised reference library development. The guide provides best practices for every stage of sequence generation and dissemination.

A news article about the new guide was published in UC San Diego Today in early April.

Access/download the full document on Zenodo.

WC-OBON gave an update in Webinar 2 of the OBON Projects Wave 2025 series – view on YouTube.