Campaigns

Sharing information about shared interests

Over the past six years, a number of researchers with shared interests have started campaigns to collate and share information on the collection and registration of DNA barcodes from specific families and regions of life. While these campaigns are not part of the formal iBOL structure, most of them work closely with the relevant iBOL Working Group(s) and with Barcode of Life Database Systems (BOLD) towards the ultimate goal of a barcode reference library of all life on Earth.

The Formicidae Barcode of Life campaign was launched in 2008 with the aim of barcoding all of the world’s more than 12,000 ant species.

The All Birds Barcoding Initiative (ABBI), launched in September 2005, is a campaign to collect DNA barcodes from five or more individuals of all of the approximately 10,000 bird species.

Trichoptera Barcode of Life is a long-term project to barcode the world’s approximately 13,000 species of caddisflies.

The Coral Reef Barcode of Life campaign is a detailed barcode study of fishes at one site in the Great Barrier Reef to generate a barcode library that will aid taxonomic work by clarifying species boundaries and by revealing cryptic taxa.

The Fish Barcode of Life Initiative (FISH-BOL), is a global effort to coordinate assembly of a standardised reference sequence library for all fish species, derived from voucher specimens with authoritative taxonomic identifications.

All Fungi Barcoding provides up-to-date information on fungal barcoding and facilitates communication and collaboration among researchers interested in fungi.

HealthBOL coordinates initiatives to barcode vectors, pathogens, and parasites for the betterment of human health around the world.

The Lepidoptera Barcode of Life campaign aims to build a barcode library for all butterflies and moths with sub-campaigns for selected families (e.g. Geometridae and Saturniidae) and continental campaigns in Australia and North America.

The Mammal Barcode of Life, as part of the larger effort encompassing all vertebrates, aims to build a comprehensive reference library of DNA barcodes for the global mammal fauna.

The Mosquito Barcoding Initiative, is a demonstration project aimed at producing a global operational system for identifying mosquitoes in two years. MBI plans to barcode at least five specimens from 80 percent of the 3,200 known mosquito species. Disease-bearing species and their closest relatives are the priority.

The Marine Barcode of Life campaign (MarBOL) is a joint effort of the Consortium for the Barcode of Life (CBOL) and the Census of Marine Life (CoML) to barcode life in the world’s oceans.

The Polar Barcode of Life campaign coordinates barcoding efforts in ongoing bioinventory projects in Arctic and Antarctic marine, freshwater and terrestrial ecosystems.

The Shark Barcode of Life project aims to barcode the 1,000 marine and 100 freshwater shark species.

The Sponge Barcoding Project is the first global barcoding project on any diploblast taxon and covers the complete taxonomic range of Porifera.

Bee-BOL, the Bee Barcode of Life Initiative, is a global effort to coordinate the assembly of a standardized reference sequence library for all 20,000 bee species. (Updated website coming soon)