The Metabarcoding Symposium, held on 17 and 18 September 2026 at the Natural History Museum Vienna, was not only a platform for professional exchange, but also marked the beginning of an Austrian eDNA community (provisionally: OeDNA). The symposium was organised by the ABOL coordination team together with Bettina Thalinger (WasserCluster Lunz) and Christoph Hahn (University of Graz).… Read more
Due to last year’s great success, the 2nd DNA barcoding workshop took place in September at the University of Zambia (UNZA) in the capital Lusaka.
As part of the OeAD project “Inventorying biodiversity in the tropics: Establishing a DNA-barcoding pipeline for characterizing and monitoring Zambia’s biodiversity” led by the University of Graz (Stephan Koblmüller and Lukas Zangl) and participation by ABOL and Prof.… Read more
In early October, ABOL held a DNA barcoding workshop at the University of Zambia (UNZA) in Lusaka together with Prof. Cyprian Katongo. The workshop – as part of the OeAD cooperation development research project “DNA barcoding of Zambia’s biodiversity” (led by the University of Graz) – aimed to teach students and employees the method and applications of DNA barcoding.… Read more
One goal of ABOL is to promote taxonomic knowledge. What could be more obvious than participate in the ÖEG insect camp. For this reason, a BioBlitze took place for the first time this year apart from days of biodiversity. The four-day camp was from 23.6.… Read more
For the second time, the ABOL meeting was conducted as online conference because of to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic and also for the second time it was held under the common title Days of Biodiversity following the Austrian Biodiversity Forum. A number of interesting topics had already been presented and discussed in the workshops of the pre-phase of the biodiversity forum.… Read more
In February, the first two workshops familiarized already a total of 28 participants with the international Barcode of Life Database (BOLD) and enabled them to get insights into the analysis tools of this platform.… Read more
Metabarcoding-Symposium 202624. September, 2026 - 10:33The Metabarcoding Symposium, held on 17 and 18 September 2026 at the Natural History Museum Vienna, was not only a platform for professional exchange, but also marked the beginning of an Austrian eDNA community (provisionally: OeDNA). The symposium was organised by the ABOL coordination team together with Bettina Thalinger (WasserCluster Lunz) and Christoph Hahn (University of Graz).… Read more
A decade of ABOL – new paper!24. September, 2026 - 09:36How can a country’s biological diversity be systematically documented – and what does it take to turn a research initiative into a sustainable, long-term network?
Since 2014, the Austrian Barcode of Life (ABOL) Initiative has been dedicated to systematically documenting Austria’s animal, plant, and fungal diversity using DNA barcoding.… Read more
ABOL-BioBlitzes 2026 – from the river plain to the summit27. July, 2026 - 15:44Since 2019, the ABOL coordination team has been actively involved in the various Days of Biodiversity, conducting ABOL BioBlitz surveys. These surveys generate DNA barcodes and familiarize experts with this methodological approach. This year’s Days of Biodiversity were once again very popular.… Read more
