New Biodiversity Study Can Discover New Species In T&T – Ministry of Planning

Few groups of species are simultaneously as important and as understudied as invertebrates – they make up more than 97% of all known species, are essential to the health of virtually every ecosystem and are also severely underrepresented in conservation decisions and on endangered species protection lists. A lack of research means that there often simply isn’t enough data available to make decisions about their protection. The BIOSCAN programme, a first of its kind initiative in Trinidad and Tobago which is employing DNA barcoding to map out local flying insect populations, is laying the foundation to address that.

BIOSCAN is a collaborative global undertaking to chart worldwide biodiversity by the International Barcode of Life Consortium (iBOL) with a current focus on flying insects. It is led locally by the Ministry of Planning and Development through the Environmental Policy and Planning Division and kicked off in April 2023 with the setting up of Malaise traps at Brazil Secondary School and TCL’s Mayo Quarry Rehabilitation Site. Two more traps will be set up at the Asa Wright Nature Centre and Main Ridge Tobago to cover a diverse range of local environments. The traps will be maintained for a period of two years through partnerships with the private sector, NGOs and students and teachers. Every specimen collected will be identified, photographed and DNA barcoded – widely mapping insect genetic biodiversity for the first time in T&T.

Dr. Lena Dempewolf, Biodiversity Specialist at the Ministry of Planning and project lead, emphasized the importance of invertebrate biodiversity to our very way of life,

“Insects are incredibly diverse – they have a huge amount of roles in the ecosystem. Many are pollinators, so they are extremely vital for commercial food production and national food security, but they also maintain native plants that provide habitats for other species – like those that are hunted for food and species that tourists come here to see. The species that we have are because of the plants we have, and those plants are maintained by pollinators! They also help in decomposition, managing soil quality, providing food for other organisms and they even control pests. They do a lot!”

Despite this however, international research and conservation efforts have historically focused instead on larger, more charismatic species. Invertebrates are small, very difficult to identify and count, and have had to combat the incorrect perception of being viewed as unimportant despite their fundamental role in maintaining ecosystems. Dr. Dempewolf said that research like this is critical to address that gap in data,

“It’s hard to protect something if you don’t know it’s there or what its status is – you need baseline data for protection. We don’t have the data and without it we can’t tell if we are having a problem with species decline – BIOSCAN comes at a great time as it will give a lot of data on species that haven’t been sufficiently sampled in Trinidad and Tobago.”

The BIOSCAN programme will help establish baselines for species which can be used towards the development of monitoring programmes and policy to protect critical groups. Many species also function as environmental health indicators and thusly they can reveal where attention needs to be directed. All data collected through the programme will go onto an open access database, freely accessible to all to support further study.

Another possible exciting outcome of BIOSCAN? Dr. Dempewolf predicts the potential for the discovery of new insect species in Trinidad and Tobago by the end of the two year period.

“We haven’t done sampling to this extent before. We only have one species of Syrphid fly officially recorded for Tobago and I’ve had at least 4 different species collected in traps I set for bees! We’re definitely going to have species being officially recorded for the first time here, and with the scale of this project, there is a good chance that we will also discover new species.”

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