Claudia Schnelle

Masters student

DNA Barcoding of riverine and estuarine fauna in Mozambique

There is a lack of species inventories within the rivers and estuaries of Mozambique along with no expertise and knowledge as to the number of different species within these. Collaborators from universities within Mozambique and from the Ecological Genomics and Wildlife Conservation centre at the University of Johannesburg are working on creating a baseline database with the aid of simple DNA barcoding methods as well as new and exciting 4IR technologies i.e. metabarcoding and big data mining of environmental DNA (eDNA), in order to determine the species and their numbers within these major bodies of water.

Claudia will help generate this information, which will aid in creating an important database for further use by collaborators and will help create similar projects that can be carried out for other countries along the south-eastern coastline of Africa.