Skip to content Skip to footer

Ables participant ARC Centre of Excellence for Indigenous and Environmental Histories and Futures (CIEHF).

Project title

Reconstructing Australian paleoenvironments and biodiversity using metagenomic analysis of sedimentary ancient DNA

Collaborators and funding

  • ARC Centre for Excellence for Indigenous and Environmental Histories and Futures (CIEHF)

  • Australian Centre for Ancient DNA, University of Adelaide

  • Evolution of Cultural Diversity Initiative, Australian National University

Contact(s)

Project description and aims

This project is part of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Indigenous and Environmental Histories and Futures (CIEHF), which seeks to create a lasting impact by integrating Indigenous and Western knowledge frameworks to model environmental, cultural, and historical change in Australia over the past millennium and into the near future. One of its key approaches leverages sedimentary ancient DNA (sedaDNA) analysis, a transformative tool for studying past biodiversity and its responses to environmental, climatic, and human- induced disturbances. However, given the large volume of samples expected to be collected by CIEHF partners, there is a need to streamline both laboratory workflows and bioinformatic analyses of sedaDNA sequencing data.

To address this, this project aims to build capacity for the growth of sedaDNA research in Australia by automating bioinformatic analyses into a single Nextflow pipeline that can easily produce a validated taxonomic profile of both modern and ancient target species found in sediment samples.

How is ABLeS supporting this work?

This work is supported through the Production Bioinformatics scheme provided by ABLeS. The support includes 5 TB long term storage and 50 KSUs per quarter.

Expected outputs enabled by participation in ABLeS

Expected outcomes include an automated computational workflow that improves the ability to process a broader range of sequencing datasets, including shotgun metagenomics and target capture enrichment, for sedaDNA analysis. This will enable the large-scale implementation of sedaDNA analyses and improve accessibility for partner researchers. We aim to publish these novel findings in high-impact journals, such as Nature, following consultation with our Indigenous partners.


These details have been provided by project members at project initiation. For more information on the project, please consult the contact(s) or project links above.