What do you believe is the single most important factor driving up the cost of living in Nigeria?

New DNA technology promises to improve efforts to monitor marine life in the Southern Ocean, and detect the presence of non-native marine species close to Antarctica.

During a 3,000 nautical mile voyage from Hobart to Davis research station in 2019, on former Australian icebreaker Aurora Australis, scientists collected 138 seawater samples and examined the "environmental DNA" (eDNA) in the samples to see which zooplankton species (tiny marine animals) had been present at the time the samples were collected.

Australian Antarctic Division molecular geneticist, Dr. Leonie Suter, said they then compared the species detected using eDNA, to zooplankton collected using a continuous plankton recorder (CPR).

"The CPR is an instrument towed behind the ship that captures zooplankton in between two sheets of silk," Dr. Suter said.

"We can then look at the captured animals under the microscope to identify them."

• Read More