Environmental DNA (eDNA) allows the detection of organisms from traces of their DNA sampled from water, air or soil. Sampling eDNA instead of organisms makes monitoring fast, non-invasive, scalable and inexpensive. In this lecture, students will learn about eDNA and how it can be sampled, sequenced and analysed for biodiversity discovery and monitoring.

The ability to critically evaluate original (scientific) literature and to summarise the information in a succinct manner is an important skill for any student. This course aims to practice this ability, requiring each student to write a term paper of scientific quality on a topic of relevance for research in the areas of biogeochemistry and pollutant dynamics.

This class is the 2nd part of a series and participation is conditional on the successful completion of "Term Paper 1: Writing". The results from the term paper written during the previous term are presented to the other students and advisors and discussed with the audience.