DNA barcoding of benthic invertebrates from Lake Sevan (Armenia)

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Project title:

DNA barcoding of benthic invertebrates from Lake Sevan (Armenia)

ZFMK Project lead:

Dr. Jonas Astrin

Unit:

Biobank, Lepidoptera, Department Arthropoda

Object of research:

Barcoding, Macrozoobenthos, Caucasus region

Description

Lake Sevan, the only large water reservoir within the South Caucasus, is under severe ecological pressure, and understanding the species composition of the lake and especially the rivers of its drainage basin is of central importance to inform natural resource management decisions in Armenia.

Due to the limited capacity in the area for exact and fast taxonomic identification of benthic invertebrates, we started to compile a DNA barcode reference database of aquatic arthropods from the Lake Sevan drainage basin, spearheaded by Dr. Marine Dallakyan from Yerevan's Scientific Center of Zoology and Hydroecology (Armenian Academy of Sciences), whose first visit to ZFMK has been financed by DAAD. The project is closely linked to the efforts undertaken and planned within the GGBC project.

The project results are aimed at making future standardized assessment of aquatic biodiversity monitoring in Armenia and the Caucasus easier, faster, and more reliable.