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36C3 - Protecting the Wild

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    36C3 preroll music
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    Angel: Right now I'd like to welcome our
    first speaker on stage. The talk will be
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    about protecting the wild and I'll hand
    over to her. Please give her a warm round
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    of applause.
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    Applause
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    Jutta Buschbom: Thank you very much for
    the introduction. My name is Jutta
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    Buschbom, I'm an evolutionary biologist.
    That is my background. I did do my PHD at
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    the University of Chicago working on
    little fungees that live in symbiosis with
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    algae and form colorful rocks, colorful
    crust on rocks. I then did a Postdoc in
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    bioinformatics and after that moved back
    into organismal biology, working in forest
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    genetics. And the ten years I worked in
    forest genetics for the first time I
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    encountered questions that were with
    regard to application, and I found out
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    that actually moving from research to
    application is not trivial. So what I'm
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    going to present is a high tech way using
    genomic data to protect biodiversity in a
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    way that you can actually reach
    application and use conservation genomic
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    tools. So this summer the draft of the
    report of the Intergovernmental Science
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    Policy Panel for Biodiversity and
    Ecosystem Services came out and its
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    results were quite warning. It stated that
    around a million animal and plant species
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    are currently stated and of those...half
    of those species are already dead species
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    walking. So because due to the destruction
    of the habitats or habitat deterioration,
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    they are not able to reproduce in a
    sustainable way anymore. A third of the
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    total species extinction rate risk to date
    has arisen in the last 25 years. And just
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    to give you an idea about the relation we
    are talking about...currently the rate of
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    extinction risk is already at least ten to
    hundreds times higher than it has averaged
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    over the past 10 million years. And within
    these 10 million years there were the Ice
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    Ages, for example. And most of the
    extinction risk is due to the fact of land
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    and sea use change. The report also talks,
    even talks about that we already seem to
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    have transgressed a proposed precautionary
    planetary boundary, which means within the
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    boundary we have a stable biological
    system. But having transgressed it, we
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    might already be in a transition to a new
    state that we have no way to find out how
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    this state is going to look like. So all
    of these facts that the report is stating
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    are actually pretty negative. And I was
    quite happy to read that they also present
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    that there are actually people who do
    better than most of us. And they point out
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    that many practices of indigenous people
    and local communities actually conserve
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    and sustain wild and domesticated
    biodiversity quite well. Today, a higher
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    proportion of the remaining terrestrial
    biodiversity lies in areas managed and
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    held by indigenous people. And these
    ecosystems are more intact and less
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    declining, less rapidly declining. So we
    have examples of lifestyles that actually
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    do better than most of us. And I know the
    solutions won't be simple and it won't be
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    easy to get there but we can look to what
    these people do better than we do. All of
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    this sounds...it's a global report and it
    sounds kind of like far away, like
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    probably somewhere in the tropics, but
    actually threats to biodiversity happen
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    also directly in front of our own front
    doors. This summer a paper came out from
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    two colleagues from the University of
    Greifswald, who had analyzed the long term
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    data set about leaf beetles. And they were
    asking if we already have a decline of
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    leaf beetles in Central Europe. So they
    compiled long term data sets of leaf
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    beetle observations for Central Europe,
    starting from 1900 now to 2017, so
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    spanning a hundred and twenty years. And
    what they find is that systematic reports
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    on leaf beetles and leaf beetle
    observations are increasing during this
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    time interval, time span. But despite the
    fact that we have...like in the last two
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    decades, we had very high numbers of
    reports and observations for leaf beetles,
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    the number of species, the orange line, is
    declining. It's slightly declining. But
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    the question is, is this real or not? And
    what was most worrisome to the authors is
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    that in the data set, the number of
    species here in orange that were having
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    more reports was declining, while the
    number of species that showed less reports
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    than before is expanding. So this kind of
    long term datasets are very hard to
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    interpret and many factors can contribute
    to those patterns. And it's not clear if
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    this pattern is statistically significant.
    But if you take a step back and consider
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    your background knowledge, your prior
    knowledge about the state of the world, do
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    you say, like, how does the current state
    look like? Does it look good or rather
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    worrisome? And then with that knowledge,
    tell me that these results are an
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    artifact or a bias. I'm worried that once
    we have statistical significant signal in
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    this dataset, it will be already too late.
    So right now, I've been talking about leaf
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    beetles and beetles are the largest group
    within insects with about 400.000 species.
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    Leaf beetles are a large family of about
    50.000 species which are worldwide
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    distributed. And here in Germany, we have
    over 470 leaf beetle species. So how do we
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    actually know how many species there are
    and who actually counted all these
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    species? And is that just a task of
    taxonomists. Taxonomy is the science of
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    naming and defining, including
    circumscribing and classifying groups of
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    biological organisms on the basis of
    shared characters. So one could have the
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    picture of some woman with a funny hat
    running over a meadow catching like
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    butterflies or some guy mushroom hunter
    crawling through the forest trying to find
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    mushrooms. And it's true, as biodiversity
    scientists we spent a lot of time outdoors
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    and yeah...on the other hand, biotaxonomy
    is a high-tech science today. So
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    taxonomists actually take up new
    technological tools and developments to
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    help them identify and describe,
    understand the species. So taxonomists
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    actually are often experts in, for
    example, microscopy, mathematics,
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    biochemistry, even proteomics and
    genomics. So throughout the talk, I'm
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    going to compile this list of people and
    experts we're going to need to protect
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    biodiversity if we want to do this on the
    basis of genetic data. Right now, the list
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    is quite empty. The first entry is a
    taxonomists, but that will change quickly
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    and taxonomists are a subgroup of
    evolutionary biologists mostly. So I told
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    you as taxonomists and biodiversity
    scientists take up technology and...so as
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    soon as computers came about and the
    internet started people started to use
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    that to compile information about species,
    and today we have several global resources
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    available at the species level and above
    the species level. So we biodiversity
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    scientists were among the first who
    defined biodiversity information
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    standards. We have a global catalog of
    life. A list of all named species. The
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    Global Biodiversity Information Facility
    has an aim to bring together information
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    from different sources and they are
    compiling, producing this wonderful map.
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    This is leaf beetles, all the records
    about leaf beetles that we have in the
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    world. And it looks like as if leaf
    beetles are highly associated with third
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    world economics. However that clearly is
    an artifact and it just shows that we need
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    many more taxonomists and biodiversity
    scientists all over the world to find and
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    identify leaf beetles. So we also need
    biodiversity informaticians to help us
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    compile global lists and distribute
    knowledge. So far I have been talking
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    about species which is a simplification.
    The question is what is...what are species
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    actually? And so we need to talk about
    genetic diversity within and between
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    species. And I'm going to do so using
    gulls, which most of us might know. Here
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    in Europe, we have two large gulls of the
    genus Larus. One is in the front, the
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    lighter gray is our Silbermöwe. And in the
    back is our Heringsmöwe, the dark one. And
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    I'm going to use German names because the
    English names go crosswise and that's
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    completely confusing. So I will stick with
    the German names. Here in Europe these two
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    species seem to be really fine species
    because they barely interbreed, so they
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    don't hybridize. However, if you take a
    step back and look at the genus in
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    general, you see that the species of the
    genus are distributed kind of ringwise
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    around the Arctic. And so the idea is
    that, say during the Ice Age, all of this
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    area was glaciated and the gulls retreated
    to a refuge here near the Caspian Sea. And
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    then after the ice retreated, the gulls
    moved back north. One branch moved into
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    Europe forming our Heringsmöwe and
    another branch then moved counterclockwise
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    around the Arctic, producing different
    morphotypes, different species across the
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    Bering Strait and then into North America.
    There the dark blue one is...I'm
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    simplifying, the equivalent of our
    European Silbermöwe, the American
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    Silbermöwe. Then the idea is that some
    individuals crossed back to Europe and
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    formed our European Silbermöwe. And while
    all of these species here are
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    interbreeding, so they hybridize. Only
    when this ring is closed those two species
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    don't interbreed anymore. And the big
    question is, are we actually dealing with
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    one single species or are we dealing with
    different species that just happened to
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    hybridize more or less? The question is
    not trivial because it has consequences
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    for protection. If we are dealing with one
    single species, all the gulls in Eurasia
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    could go extinct and it wouldn't matter
    because we still would have the gulls in
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    North America. However, if we have
    different species in all of these areas,
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    we would need to protect individuals or
    the species on a regional level and
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    protect all of these different species. So
    to investigate this question about: Do we
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    have different species? And what were the
    evolutionary processes and histories that
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    brought about the species? A group of
    scientists investigated that using DNA
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    sequences. And on the left, you have the
    model, the theoretical model of the ring
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    species. And here on the right you have
    reality. And the scientists found that the
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    reality is always much more complex. So,
    for example, they found two refuges or
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    they proposed two refuges. But what they
    found was that genetic diversity was
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    correlated with those species or
    morphotypes. So what that also means is
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    that genetic diversity is cultivated with
    geographic origin. What we learn from this
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    type of analysis is we learn about
    evolutionary processes and history, about
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    variability and differentiation of our
    gene flow and migration, about speciation
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    processes. That we all need to understand
    our species, which will allow us to
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    protect them. So we need evolutionary
    biologists who do follow genetics and
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    population genetics. So once we found out
    that one can use genetic diversity, to
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    infer geographic origin because genetic
    diversity is correlated with geography,
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    people immediately said: 'Okay, we can use
    it for conservation applications.'. And
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    it's also...we learned that we...often it
    is unclear what is a species, species
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    boundaries are unclear and some species
    have huge distribution ranges with
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    different clusters of viability within
    this huge range. So we know that we need
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    to protect within species genetic
    diversity, which means that we need to
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    understand within species population
    structure and we need to build useful and
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    reliable models of population structure.
    These models are actually required for all
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    of our applications. They are required for
    monitoring, for example, for conservation
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    strategies, for functional adaptation and
    adaptability, questions of productability
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    of different provenances, its impact on
    management regimes, breeding strategies,
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    and also for enforcement applications.
    From the studies I showed you before with
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    the gulls we also know that we need to
    approach the question of a population
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    structure on a distribution range wide
    scale. So here's the map produced by
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    EUFORGENE, the European Network for forest
    reproductive material for one of our
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    native oaks, the sessil oak. And the dots
    are the sites for genetic conservation
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    units. And so that is one strategy how to
    represent within species genetic diversity
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    and how to sample it. And you can see this
    is a hypothetical example, but we likely
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    will see a gradient from west to east or
    might see one at this scale. Then once we
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    have these kind of global data sets, we
    can go to the fine scale and maybe, for
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    example, do a national genetic monitoring.
    And we will find much finer scale
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    gradients. We also will find especially
    for first trace outliers, so for stands
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    that don't fit the usual pattern. And that
    is because the first reproductive material
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    has been moved around a lot. And so these
    lighter or darker dots is material that
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    was moved to Germany from the outside. And
    we only will identify these outliers if we
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    have the whole reference dataset. If we
    don't have the whole reference dataset, we
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    might not identify these outliers - stands
    with a different history. Or in a worst
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    case, these outliers might actually bias
    our gradients. And we are always talking
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    about very slight gradients. So it's easy
    to bias these gradiants, dilute them, so
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    we actually won't get the results we need.
    To compile these kinds of reference
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    datasets that's huge collaborative efforts
    because people need to go out into the
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    field and collect the reference samples
    and that might be scientists, that might
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    be people from local communities, citizen
    scientists, managers, owners, government
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    officials who provide background
    information, maps, distribution
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    information and also in many parts of the
    world might protect the people who are
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    actually collecting the samples. And it
    might be conservation activists and NGOs.
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    So once the samples have been collected
    they need to be stored somewhere for the
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    long term and the information needs to be
    databased. And that is the work of
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    scientific connections, which are mostly
    at natural history museums and there the
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    samples are processed. They're organized
    in ways that you can find them again. All
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    the metadata is entered, which curators
    do, collection managers, preparators,
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    technical staff at the scientific
    collections. So once we have these kind of
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    data sets, large scale data sets, what are
    we actually doing with them? So the
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    foundation for all of our applications is
    population structure and there
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    specifically population assignment. So the
    process is set first. We decide on a
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    question and design our project
    accordingly that we can answer the
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    question. Then we need to infer the
    population structure model and optimize
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    it. In the next step we need to check if a
    model actually is good enough for
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    application because we might have found
    the best model, but it might still not be
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    good enough for application. So we need to
    test that. And that is the step of
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    population assignment or predictive
    assignment. And then in the end, we want
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    to test our hypothesis. Are the two stands
    different or does an individual come from
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    stand A or from stand B? And here we
    identify error rates and accuracy. So this
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    whole process is very statistical. And so
    the analysis of these reference data they
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    need to be accompanied by biostatisticians
    who can tell us how to analyze our data.
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    So what is the state-of-the-art right now?
    What kind of geographic resolution do we
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    actually get of this non model specie
    currently? And I'm going to present the
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    example of an African timber tree
    species, which is a very valuable timber.
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    It's one example but basically all results
    for species who have large distribution
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    ranges and are continuously distributed
    and are also long-lived, are very similar.
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    So this kind of results seem to be species
    independent. So the species are Milica
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    regia and excelsa, African teak, which
    cannot be grown in plantations for timber
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    quality. So it is harvested unsustainably
    from natural forests. It's distributed in
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    West, Central and East Africa. Here's a
    black rectangle. And a group of a dozen
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    scientists got together and they actually
    sampled a reference dataset for these two
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    species. It's about over 400 samples, they
    analyzed four marker systems, resulting in
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    a total of something like 100 markers,
    genetic markers, and then they optimized
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    the population model and used different
    parameter settings. And we're going to
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    concentrate here on the best solution that
    they found. And basically this rectangle
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    here is the black one over here. So the
    resolution is... they found population
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    structure with clear clusters. So the
    populations and the species from West
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    Africa can be distinguished from those
    populations in Central Africa. And the
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    ones in East Africa can be differentiated.
    So that is really good. So we have
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    population structure. We know their
    signal. The problem is still that our
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    resolution is much lower than we would
    need to have it because we basically need
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    resolution at least on a country level,
    because most of the laws are national. So
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    it might be legal to harvest a tree in one
    country, but not in another country. So we
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    need to get our resolution down to country
    level or even to regional level. If you
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    want to distinguish, was the tree
    harvested in a national park in a
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    protected area or outside in a managed
    forest. And when as biodiversity
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    scientists, we don't know how to continue,
    one thing is to look for what people do
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    with model organisms and specifically what
    people do in human population genomics
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    because there thousands of populations
    geneticists are working and there is a
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    completely different funding background
    due to the interest of the medical and the
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    pharma industry. So they are always
    advanced. What we can learn from there,
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    from the human populations genomics is
    that we need two features. One is we
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    already know that we need distribution
    wide sampling, which provides a spatial
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    context. The second feature is that we
    need genome wide sequencing, preferably
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    genome sequencing, which provides us steps
    in time because our genomes are archives
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    of our evolutionary history. They are
    records of all the processes and events
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    and these steps in time then translate
    also into resolution. Once we have these
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    two features, actually these reference
    datasets open Pandora's box. Suddently we
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    can ask all kinds of questions and
    objectives, even those that we still don't
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    know. We can develop all kinds of
    applications which is done for humans.
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    Currently, there are at least four global
    datasets on human diversity. These are
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    very widely reused and these big datasets
    - so they are big data with regard to the
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    number of samples and also the genomes or
    the genome representations and this
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    results in very information rich data
    which initiates analytical development so
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    people continuously are developing new
    statistical methods. And right now, a new
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    wave is coming in of these methods. So
    once you have these global datasets,
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    people start in human populations
    genomics, started to do these intense
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    regional samplings. And this is the
    example of the United Kingdom Biobank.
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    It's a project with 500.000 volunteers,
    they are all UK citizens from all over the
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    islands. And each individual was genotyped
    in a vet lab for 820.000 markers. That's
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    completely I mean, that's a different
    number than the 100 or 1000...in
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    biodiversity scientists we normally
    analyse a maximum of a couple of 10.000
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    markers. So that's a completely different
    number. But then statistical geneticists
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    come. They do some weird and wonderful
    voodoo and they derive 96 million markers
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    per genome that is per individual from
    these 820.000 markers that were produced
  • 31:53 - 32:01
    in the lab. So that's a hundred fold
    increase. And once you have this kind of
  • 32:01 - 32:08
    dataset for a genome, you suddenly or you
    finally become country level and within
  • 32:08 - 32:19
    country level resolution. So these panels
    are examples. So the first panel shows
  • 32:19 - 32:26
    individuals who were born in Edinburgh and
    the question was "Where were people born
  • 32:26 - 32:32
    who had a similar ancestral background,
    genetic background?". And what they found
  • 32:32 - 32:42
    was that was all over Scotland and
    Northern Ireland. Northern Yorkshire was
  • 32:42 - 32:50
    even more local. So people from Yorkshire
    don't seem to get around a lot. For London
  • 32:50 - 32:54
    the situation is completely different.
    That is what we would expect because
  • 32:54 - 33:00
    London is a people magnet. People move
    there all the time. They meet there, they
  • 33:00 - 33:06
    get children and the kids born in London,
    their genetic ancestry has nothing to do
  • 33:06 - 33:13
    with London. It's from all over the place,
    from the British Isles and the world. So
  • 33:13 - 33:22
    that's why the colors are strongly
    dissolved. So this study came out also
  • 33:22 - 33:26
    this summer. And it's the first time that
    I have seen that we actually really can
  • 33:26 - 33:37
    achieve regional resolution. And I find
    this possibility for biodiversity science
  • 33:37 - 33:47
    really exciting. So it was made possible
    by very sophisticated statistical
  • 33:47 - 33:52
    approaches which are able to analyze
    genetic data from highly complex
  • 33:52 - 33:59
    evolutionary and ecological systems. And
    at the same time these analyses are able
  • 33:59 - 34:05
    to handle big data. We we're talking about
    gigabytes and terabytes of data and
  • 34:05 - 34:14
    results. So a statistical geneticist are
    developing new methods of data
  • 34:14 - 34:20
    representation to handle this amount of
    data. And then we are able to sufficiently
  • 34:20 - 34:26
    extract the signal for a very specific
    question from data which are very low
  • 34:26 - 34:37
    signal to noise ratio. So to get there, we
    need many experts and specialists. So we
  • 34:37 - 34:42
    need statistical geneticists, big data
    experts who also might contribute machine
  • 34:42 - 34:49
    learning expertise. We need molecular
    biologists who know how to sequence
  • 34:49 - 34:54
    complex genomes. We now need
    bioinformatics with an expertise in
  • 34:54 - 35:05
    genomics for assembly, annotation and
    alignment of genomic sequences. The result
  • 35:05 - 35:13
    is actually this: This is the author list
    for the thousands genomes project
  • 35:13 - 35:20
    reference data set, and I don't expect you
    to be able to read it, but the bold type
  • 35:20 - 35:26
    is of interest because it shows all the
    different tasks that are necessary to
  • 35:26 - 35:36
    produce a standardized and highly cleaned
    reverence dataset. So the whole author
  • 35:36 - 35:42
    list is something like 1.5 pages long and
    even considering that some authors will
  • 35:42 - 35:51
    have contributed to several tasks. The
    publications for reference datasets mostly
  • 35:51 - 35:57
    have author lists that are far over 50
    people. So they are huge collaborative
  • 35:57 - 36:05
    efforts. Now we take the step into
    biodiversity science. Here these are eight
  • 36:05 - 36:13
    gastrotrichs, they are little worm like...
    organisms who live in the sediments of
  • 36:13 - 36:23
    freshwater lakes and marine sediment. They
    are in general a couple of hundreds micro
  • 36:23 - 36:30
    meters large. And I don't have any
    numbers, but my guess would be that maybe
  • 36:30 - 36:39
    worldwide, a hundred to a thousand people
    actually work on these species. There are
  • 36:39 - 36:45
    800 species of gastrotrichs. So let's say
    there's one, two, maybe three experts per
  • 36:45 - 36:52
    species for these organisms. So how are
    these three people going to manage all
  • 36:52 - 37:01
    these tasks to produce a reference
    dataset? You might say, well, it's
  • 37:01 - 37:05
    gastrotrichs, I mean, have never heard
    about them. Maybe they are not so
  • 37:05 - 37:08
    important. Maybe you don't need a
    reference data sets, but actually some of
  • 37:08 - 37:18
    those species are bioindicators for water
    quality. So what we observe right now is a
  • 37:18 - 37:28
    gap for biodiversity conservation. In
    model organisms, we have Pandora's Box
  • 37:28 - 37:35
    open. We have all the statistical analyses
    at our hands to analyze our data sets.
  • 37:35 - 37:40
    However, in none model organisms, we are
    still stuck with summary statistics that
  • 37:40 - 37:47
    don't provide us the resolution that we
    need. And we know that to close this gap,
  • 37:47 - 37:53
    even for a single species, it's a huge
    effort. But at the same time, we have over
  • 37:53 - 38:04
    35.000 species listed by scientists which
    need already now effective protection. So
  • 38:04 - 38:10
    we need to find a way to close this gap
    and actually move in this direction. And
  • 38:10 - 38:20
    the good thing is, so all of this... in
    biodiversity science, in academia, and we
  • 38:20 - 38:25
    need to make the transition over the
    conservational genomic gap into the big
  • 38:25 - 38:32
    loop of real world conservation tasks. And
    the good thing is we already know what we
  • 38:32 - 38:38
    have to do. So we need to have reference
    data sets, distribution range wide. We
  • 38:38 - 38:44
    need to have statistics. And it's going to
    be big data. So we need collection
  • 38:44 - 38:54
    management, data management and an
    analysis environment. So looking at
  • 38:54 - 39:00
    different ingredients or different steps
    the first we need is a general data
  • 39:00 - 39:05
    infrastructure for global diversity of
    reference data sets that actually can be
  • 39:05 - 39:12
    used across species for preferably as many
    species as possible and provide a working
  • 39:12 - 39:20
    environment for biodiversity scientists
    and experts. It should be user friendly so
  • 39:20 - 39:26
    it can be used by scientists, but also
    that people from local communities and
  • 39:26 - 39:33
    citizen scientists can add their
    observation data and their data into this
  • 39:33 - 39:41
    data infrastructure. I have listed quite a
    lot of features that these kind of
  • 39:41 - 39:48
    infrastructures should have. And I'm going
    to argue that these features are not some
  • 39:48 - 40:03
    nice to have, but actually some must have.
    Because our goal is always application. So
  • 40:03 - 40:13
    we need developers, managers and curators
    for data infrastructures. Since our goal
  • 40:13 - 40:31
    is application, our main features are
    quality control and error reduction. These
  • 40:31 - 40:39
    are the basis. So that our conservation
    tools can be robustly and reliably applied
  • 40:39 - 40:46
    under real world operating conditions. And
    the way to achieve quality and error
  • 40:46 - 40:53
    reduction is through chains of custody. So
    it means that from project of sign, from
  • 40:53 - 40:58
    the questions through all the steps that
    are necessary to produce a reference data
  • 40:58 - 41:08
    set and then...so from sample collection,
    genomic statistical analysis down to
  • 41:08 - 41:16
    application. These steps need to be
    documented and standardized. They need to
  • 41:16 - 41:22
    be, each one of them needs to be validated
    and reproducible. They should be modular
  • 41:22 - 41:29
    so they can be user friendly. And the
    whole chain of custody needs to be
  • 41:29 - 41:41
    scalable. So if our chains of custody have
    these characteristics, we actually will
  • 41:41 - 41:51
    have tools that will work in everyday
    life. So we need professional developers
  • 41:51 - 42:00
    and programmers who are able to produce
    these very collaborative softwares. We
  • 42:00 - 42:06
    need free and open source experts. So we
    always can ensure that our code and that
  • 42:06 - 42:14
    our infrastructures are still integer and
    we can check them. And I'm a biologist, I
  • 42:14 - 42:19
    don't have any background in hardware, but
    I've heard a couple of talks here in the
  • 42:19 - 42:26
    conference about Green IT. And I have
    the feeling we should have people who know
  • 42:26 - 42:34
    hardware and software and know how to
    develop these high tech tools in a way
  • 42:34 - 42:38
    sustainable so that by developing these
    tools, we don't use more resources than we
  • 42:38 - 42:49
    are trying to protect. So I've shown all
    these features and characteristics that
  • 42:49 - 42:57
    the software should have. And I'm arguing
    that these features are necessary because
  • 42:57 - 43:05
    of the reality we find us in. It is one of
    rising over-exploitation and destruction
  • 43:05 - 43:20
    of nature. So the extent of environmental
    crimes is up in the billions. All
  • 43:20 - 43:29
    environmental crime together, the green
    bubbles are only second to drug associated
  • 43:29 - 43:35
    crimes. They are up there with
    counterfeiting or human trafficing. So
  • 43:35 - 43:45
    these are multi-billion enterprises. They
    are often transnational and industries
  • 43:45 - 44:02
    with huge profits. So if there's some
    crime, some mafia boss, some criminal
  • 44:02 - 44:10
    manager who just bribed a government
    official somewhere in the neck in the
  • 44:10 - 44:18
    woods, it just would make sense that that
    person would not wait or not take the
  • 44:18 - 44:24
    risks to be discovered just because some
    customs officer pulls out a container
  • 44:24 - 44:29
    somewhere in the harbor, for example,
    opens it and says "This looks kind of
  • 44:29 - 44:37
    weird. Let's take a sample, send it to a
    lab." and then a population geneticist
  • 44:37 - 44:44
    comes back and says "Oh, yes, this sample
    is not from area A as documented, but
  • 44:44 - 44:52
    actually it's from area B and it was
    illegally logged." If we have reference
  • 44:52 - 44:59
    data sets, information rich reference data
    sets, they become highly valuable and they
  • 44:59 - 45:08
    need protection themselves against
    manipulation and destruction. So we will
  • 45:08 - 45:15
    need to think about IT security from the
    beginning. Also, these data sets are often
  • 45:15 - 45:20
    very politically sensitive because if it
    is shown that in a certain country there
  • 45:20 - 45:26
    is the illegal logging repeatedly, that
    country might not be too excited about
  • 45:26 - 45:41
    this information. So we need to think
    about IT security experts. So my hope is
  • 45:41 - 45:49
    that these kind of very high tech digital
    conservation tools can actually contribute
  • 45:49 - 45:56
    to the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals
    by empowering indigenous people, local
  • 45:56 - 46:03
    communities and also us to protect and
    force and sustainably use our lands and
  • 46:03 - 46:10
    our biodiversity by providing some
    management and law enforcement tools. So
  • 46:10 - 46:14
    we need people from around the world,
    users from around the world who use these
  • 46:14 - 46:26
    tools and help to develop them further and
    to maintain them. And finally here, these
  • 46:26 - 46:34
    high tech tools will just another
    technological fix. If we don't manage to
  • 46:34 - 46:46
    get our back down, our way of life down to
    sustainable levels. So what we need is to
  • 46:46 - 46:54
    today...this year, the Earth Overshoot Day
    was at the end of July. So at the end of
  • 46:54 - 47:02
    July, we had used all the resources that
    we had available for the whole year. And
  • 47:02 - 47:09
    we need to get this back to the end of the
    year so that our resources actually
  • 47:09 - 47:23
    sustain us for the whole year. The graphic
    here for Germany suggests that we are on a
  • 47:23 - 47:30
    good way. We are reducing our resource
    consumption and maybe even our biocapacity
  • 47:30 - 47:38
    moves up a little bit. So actually it
    seems that our personal lifestyles and
  • 47:38 - 47:46
    choices make a difference and we just need
    to close this gap here much quicker. So
  • 47:46 - 47:54
    protecting biodiversity needs all of us to
    achieve that. And with that, thank you
  • 47:54 - 47:58
    very much.
  • 47:58 - 48:08
    Applause
  • 48:08 - 48:13
    Angel: So thank you Jutta for this very
    interesting talk and the very valuable
  • 48:13 - 48:17
    work you're doing. We have three mics
    here. Please line up at the microphones if
  • 48:17 - 48:23
    you have any questions or suggestions or
    want to participate and work together with
  • 48:23 - 48:30
    Jutta. We have one question from the
    Internet, so please Signal-Angel start.
  • 48:30 - 48:35
    Signal-Angel: Why do wild plant species
    within a genus are further apart than wild
  • 48:35 - 48:43
    animal species within a genus?
    Angel: Could you repeat it, please?
  • 48:43 - 48:49
    Signal-Angel: Why do wild plant species
    within a genus are further apart than wild
  • 48:49 - 48:56
    animal species within a genus?
    Jutta: I'm not sure I understand the
  • 48:56 - 49:01
    background for the question.
    Mic 1: Because animals move and plants
  • 49:01 - 49:06
    don't move.
    Jutta: Oh, okay. If that is the idea
  • 49:06 - 49:12
    behind the question. Plants actually move,
    too. They don't move as individuals, but
  • 49:12 - 49:24
    they move their genetic material through
    pollen or fragments. So actually diversity
  • 49:24 - 49:31
    in plants and in animals can be quite
    similar. So the idea is that plants are
  • 49:31 - 49:36
    just stuck and should have a completely
    different population structure does not
  • 49:36 - 49:43
    hold because plants move around their
    genetic material through seeds, through
  • 49:43 - 49:50
    pollen, through vegetative propagules.
    Angel: So thank you microphone 1 for
  • 49:50 - 49:56
    helping out. Please ask your question. Mic
    1: So my question is about the success
  • 49:56 - 50:01
    factor of it. If you think of this,
    whatever database being set up there and I
  • 50:01 - 50:07
    think it's gonna be a huge database...I
    downloaded my own genome on the Internet.
  • 50:07 - 50:13
    It was about 150 megabytes. And if we
    multiply that, I think the genetic
  • 50:13 - 50:18
    variation from one person to another is
    about 1 percent only. So we can compress
  • 50:18 - 50:25
    that to 4 megabytes per person. If we
    sequence all the humans in the world, that
  • 50:25 - 50:33
    would be 32 petabytes, that would cost
    approximately 15 billion dollars. And
  • 50:33 - 50:37
    that's only for the storage. Now comes the
    entire management. Of course, we don't
  • 50:37 - 50:41
    want to digitize all the human genome, but
    rather the plants and animal species
  • 50:41 - 50:46
    genome. So it's a huge data program. And
    what would be for you the success factors
  • 50:46 - 50:51
    for this thing to really fly? And did you
    talk to organizations like WikiData or
  • 50:51 - 50:56
    others or where would it ideally be
    hosted? At a university or an
  • 50:56 - 51:02
    international nonprofit or who would be
    running the thing?
  • 51:02 - 51:15
    Jutta: Yeah, I mean, it's just really big
    data. I think our first goal is not to
  • 51:15 - 51:24
    think about having all predicted 5 to 10
    million species be sequenced on a
  • 51:24 - 51:30
    population level. I think we need to think
    about the next step. And there it would
  • 51:30 - 51:36
    make sense to start with species that are
    actually highly exploited, like many
  • 51:36 - 51:41
    timber species and also many marine
    fishes. I think that's where we should
  • 51:41 - 51:48
    start. And to host this kind of data I
    think it should be in political
  • 51:48 - 51:56
    independent hands. So it should be with an
    NGO or with the U.N., some organization
  • 51:56 - 52:02
    that is independent.
    Mic 1: Are you the first to think about
  • 52:02 - 52:07
    this or are there existing initiatives?
    Jutta: There are actually existing
  • 52:07 - 52:14
    initiatives. I have been in contact with
    the Forest Stewardship Council and they
  • 52:14 - 52:23
    are actually starting to sample their
    concessions and initiated to build up the
  • 52:23 - 52:29
    samples, they work together with Kew
    Botanical Gardens and the U.S. Forest
  • 52:29 - 52:38
    Service. And right now they're analyzing
    the samples, using isotopes which is
  • 52:38 - 52:46
    another method which is very powerful and
    can also produce geographic information.
  • 52:46 - 53:01
    And so, yeah, so people are moving in this
    way. So, yeah, I think the idea is out
  • 53:01 - 53:06
    there, just we have to start and we have
    to really do it and provide one
  • 53:06 - 53:13
    infrastructure so that we can combine, for
    example, morphological data, isotope data
  • 53:13 - 53:18
    and genomic data into one dataset, which
    will increase our resolution and our
  • 53:18 - 53:24
    reliability.
    Angel: Okay. Microphone number two,
  • 53:24 - 53:27
    please.
    Mic 2: Thank you for your valuable talk.
  • 53:27 - 53:33
    My question would be you'd start your talk
    with the possible decrease of leaf beetles
  • 53:33 - 53:37
    in the data set you showed on slide number
    six there was an increase in leaf beetle
  • 53:37 - 53:42
    population until the 70s, something about
    that. Is there a possible explanation for
  • 53:42 - 53:50
    that?
    Jutta: Yeah, I believe it is, because
  • 53:50 - 53:55
    people started to much more systematically
    observe leaf beetles. So it's a sample
  • 53:55 - 54:06
    effort. And also at that time the people -
    so it's a multi-people collaboration who
  • 54:06 - 54:12
    actually has assembled this dataset so the
    people who are part of this collaboration
  • 54:12 - 54:17
    they edit their own private data sets. And
    that's why you have an increase I think.
  • 54:17 - 54:24
    While the people from the nineteen
    hundreds, nineteen hundred ten you only
  • 54:24 - 54:29
    can use the data that is available in
    publications and samples in museums or in
  • 54:29 - 54:33
    scientific collections. I think that is
    the reason why you have the sharp
  • 54:33 - 54:36
    increase.
    Mic 2: Thank you.
  • 54:36 - 54:39
    Angel: So we have another question of
    microphone number two.
  • 54:39 - 54:44
    Mic 2: Thank you for your fine talking.
    Excuse me. Maybe my question is a bit off
  • 54:44 - 54:52
    topic. Do you think the methods and roles
    that you identified in your talk could be
  • 54:52 - 55:00
    transferred to the assessment of raw
    materials? I'm thinking about metals?
  • 55:00 - 55:09
    Jutta: Maybe the data infrastructure, like
    if you wanted to collect raw metals or
  • 55:09 - 55:16
    materials from all over the world and...a
    sampleized scientific collection and to
  • 55:16 - 55:22
    have kind of a reference dataset that
    might work, actually. But the genomics
  • 55:22 - 55:29
    obviously won't. So that part of what you
    would need to use different methods from
  • 55:29 - 55:36
    physics, obviously. But actually the
    infrastructure, certain parts will be
  • 55:36 - 55:40
    quite similar. I think so, yes.
    Angel: So we have one more question from
  • 55:40 - 55:43
    the Internet.
    Signal-Angel: Who does contract a
  • 55:43 - 55:52
    freelance evolutionary biologist? Can you
    give an example of this kind of work you
  • 55:52 - 56:01
    proposed?
    Jutta: So I see this gap between science
  • 56:01 - 56:08
    and applications, that we need these
    applications and there's a huge potential
  • 56:08 - 56:18
    for these applications. We know that
    illegal logging and that is my background,
  • 56:18 - 56:24
    but doesn't seem to be much different, for
    example, in marine fisheries. We know that
  • 56:24 - 56:30
    there is this huge amount of illegal
    logging and timber trade going on. And we
  • 56:30 - 56:40
    need to have some assets actually that
    have the power to detect illegally traded
  • 56:40 - 56:50
    timber. So I think there is a huge need
    for these kind of methods and
  • 56:50 - 57:01
    organizations who are interested in these
    kind of methods. Our governments, their
  • 57:01 - 57:13
    companies, NGOs, customs, Interpol. So,
    yeah.
  • 57:13 - 57:20
    Angel: Do we have any other questions? So
    thank you again Jutta for your talk and
  • 57:20 - 57:24
    the valuable work you're doing. Please
    give a warm round of applause to Jutta.
  • 57:24 - 57:29
    Applause
  • 57:29 - 57:34
    36c3 postrol music
  • 57:34 - 57:56
    Subtitles created by c3subtitles.de
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Title:
36C3 - Protecting the Wild
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