BioScan: Understudied biodiversity in the depths of Dinarides

Croatian Biospeleological Society’s (CBSS) project financed by the European consortium Biodiversity Genomics Europe (BGE) as part of the HORIZON project

In order to protect and restore biodiversity, BGE brings together two networks of scientists: iBOL Europe (with an emphasis on DNA barcoding and metabarcoding) and ERGA (with an emphasis on genome sequencing).

In the last public tender published in November 2023, in which 76 projects from all over Europe were applied for, six were selected for financing. Among them is the project of the CBSS: Understudied biodiversity in the depths of Dinarides.

The project goal is the DNA barcoding of 545 species collected mainly in the Dinaric subterranean habitats, of which: 457 described species, 86 potentially new species for science and three new genera, within 6 groups (spiders, scorpions, springtails, millipedes, isopods and pseudoscorpions). In addition to taxonomists from HBSD, scientists from Serbia (University of Belgrade), Italy (Genoa) and Australia (Western Australian Museum) are involved in the project.

The students of the Biology Department of the Faculty of Science, University of Zagreb will also participate in the laboratory work, under the mentorship of Ph.D. Dora Hlebec.