Rosenberg Institute Seminar Series - Zachary Gold

Zachary Gold, Lead Molecular Ecologist - Ocean Molecular Ecology Program, NOAA Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory

Leveraging eDNA to Survey Large Marine Ecosystems in the Northeast Pacific

Abstract: Environmental DNA (eDNA) is a powerful, cost effective, and scalable tool enhancing marine ecosystem monitoring programs across NOAA. This talk highlights our progress operationalizing eDNA approaches at scale across the West Coast Ocean Acidification, Ecosystem Fisheries Oceanography Coordinated Investigations (EcoFOCI), and California Cooperative Oceanic Fisheries Investigation (CalCOFI) cruises to generated robust marine biodiversity inventories co-located with high resolution physical and chemical hydrographic measurements. Our work highlights the power of eDNA approaches to better characterize marine ecosystem shifts across key environmental thresholds. Critical to enhancing these efforts are the integration and synthesis of eDNA data sets across ocean observing platforms being led by the West Coast Ocean Biomolecular Observation Network. Ultimately, rigorous adherence to open science principles and wide spread adoption of standards and best practices are critical to effectively mobilize trusted biomolecular observations of marine biodiversity. Such efforts directly support the National Aquatic eDNA and National Ocean Biodiversity Strategies. 

Bio: Dr. Zachary Gold is the Ocean Molecular Ecology Program Lead at the NOAA Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory in Seattle. His research seeks to leverage the advances in molecular biology to scale biological analyses with physical and chemical processes and allow for characterization of marine ecosystems response to climate change.