CanadaCentral Node
National Organization
SSC Representative
- Gary Saunders University of New Brunswick
SSC Alternate
- Keith Seifert
- Agriculture and Agri-food Canada
Goals
Our vision as the leading node of iBOL is to democratize access to biodiversity information for all users.
This vision will be achieved by maintaining global leadership in all aspects of DNA barcoding while simultaneously fostering the growth and development of barcoding capacity in other nations participating in iBOL.
Our mission is to significantly advance barcode coverage for the Canadian biota, to further global barcode coverage among those taxonomic groups for which Canada currently exhibits a leadership role (e.g. agricultural and forestry pests and their parasitoids, pollinators) and to develop the methods and technologies required to allow barcoding to attain its full potential as a tool of value for humanity.
The overarching goal of the Canadian Barcode of Life Network is to develop an accurate, rapid, cost-effective, and universally accessible DNA-based system for species identifications.
National goals include:
– Maintaining support for BOLD as the primary repository for iBOL data.
– Expanding the analytical capacity of our core facility to 400K barcode analyses per year in 2011.
– Directing approximately 80% of our analytical capacity toward international partners.
– Reinvogorating barcode activity beyond the core facility in Canada.
– Developing applications of barcoding for agricultural biosurveillance, environmental monitoring and forensic testing.
– Expanding biota barcoding from Churchill to other sites such as Algonquin Park.
– Evaluating and recommending appropriate markers for fungal barcoding.
– Transferring technology to collaborators through enhanced training programs.
– Exploring the economic, environmental, ethical, legal and social dimensions of iBOL.
Projects and Researchers
