MAR-Gen Caribe
“MAR-Gen Caribe: Metabarcoding for the Biodiversity of the Mexican Caribbean” is a collaboration with the Healthy Reefs for Healthy People Initiative to implement eDNA metabarcoding for biodiversity assessment and monitoring on reefs of the Mesoamerican Reef System.
- In June 2025 we sampled seawater in the northern Mexican Caribbean: Cancún, Isla Mujeres–Punta Nizuc and Puerto Morelos.
- We use markers for broad taxonomic groups, from microorganisms to vertebrates: 16S rRNA (bacteria and archaea), 18S rRNA (eukaryotes), ITS (fungi and symbionts), COI (metazoans) and 12S (vertebrates).
- The data will feed into a regional comparative framework to strengthen reef health monitoring.
Earlier project in the region: “Alacranes Reef” with OCEANA (2021–2022), using 12S and COI metabarcoding.
Students in this project
- Ninel Rivera Baxin — MSc, CIBNOR.