Annie Harke

"I am a master student from Berlin, Germany. Currently, I study Ecology
and Ecosystems as well as Nature Conservation and Biodiversity
Management at the University of Vienna.
My research project focuses on the investigation of the groundwater
fauna of the Lobau using environmental DNA analysis (eDNA).
eDNA analysis is a promising method for studying biodiversity,
especially in habitats that are difficult to access and for species that
are difficult to identify morphologically. However, many aspects, e.g.
the choice of adeqat primers for stygobiont/stygophile organisms or the
detectability (quantitative and qualitative) of species groups in
different environmental samples, have not yet been sufficiently
researched.
The aim of my master thesis is therefore to evaluate the possibilities
and limitations of the eDNA approach and to optimize its application for
groundwater ecosystems."