The new paper is the broadest study on the biodiversity of spiders of the Iberian Peninsula carried out using the DNA barcoding methodology. Photo: Cyclosa conica , Marc Domènech
The new paper is the broadest study on the biodiversity of spiders of the Iberian Peninsula carried out using the DNA barcoding methodology. Photo: Cyclosa conica , Marc Domènech - Populations of peninsular spiders that make aerial spider webs and move around the air by ballooning (using the silk threads as parachutes) present a more homogeneous genetics structure and are better connected between them. However, species of nocturnal spiders, which hunt on the ground and have a low dispersal capacity, show less genetically connected populations and are more vulnerable to local extinction processes due to environmental factors. This is concluded in an article published in the journal Insect Conservation and Diversity , led by Professor Miquel Arnedo, from the Faculty of Biolog y and the Biodiversity Research Institute ( IRBio ) of the UB. Among the participants are the UB-IRBio experts Marc Domènec —first author of the article—, Alba Enguídanos and Cesc Múrria, and Jagoba Malumbres-Olarte, from the University of the Azores (Portugal). Genetic diversity of Iberian spider populations In the context of the current biodiversity loss due to human activity, the use of genetic techniques to accelerate cataloguing and identification of species for their preservation has become especially relevant. These techniques require databases that relate species to their genetic sequencing.
