IPB Studying DNA Barcoding of Marine Life in Pulau Seribu (Thousand Islands) National Park Friday, March 21, 2014
The Thousand Island National Park is one of the national parks of Indonesia. The islands chained together looking like green gems from the south to the north in front of the Jakarta Bay make it very interesting to study and explore. Bogor Agricultural University (IPB) through its Laboratory of Marine Biodiversity and Biosistematics in the Department of Marine Science and Technology, Faculty of Fisheries and Marine Sciences (ITK-FPIK) in collaboration with the Indonesian Biodiversity Research Center (IBRC) and the Thousand Islands National Park (TNKS) is conducting research on biodiversity of marine life in TNKS. This study applies the technology of DNA Barcoding to identify the types of marine life found at the sites.
The research activities are linked to the courses of the graduate students in the Marine Science Program having the interest in marine biosistematics. The study begins with a sampling of marine life such as plants (mangroves and seagrass) and animals (sponges, crabs, shrimp and others) on 14-16 April 2014 at the site around Pulau Pramuka (Scout Island). The data collection and sampling are directly led by the Head of the Laboratory of Marine Biodiversity and Biosystematics of ITK-FPIK-IPB, Dr. Hawis Madduppa, M.Sc.
"Actually, DNA barcoding has quite long been applied by foreign researchers. However in Indonesia alone not many researchers have applied this technique. It is believed to have a high ability to distinguish between species," said the alumnus of the University of Bremen Germany. This study has been able to collect 500 specimens of marine animals in the group of shrimp and crab. Further analysis of DNA barcoding will be conducted at the Laboratory of Marine Biodiversity and Biosystematics ITK-FPIK-IPB. In addition to specimen collection, the students are making observations on seagrass, mangroves and coral reefs in the three islands namely Pulau Pramuka, Pulau Karya and Pulau Panggang. (Mtd)
