2020 Gap Analysis of the BOLD Database for Key English Invertebrates (NECR324)

DNA – based methods offer a significant opportunity to change how we monitor and assess biodiversity. These techniques may provide cheaper alternatives to existing species monitoring or an ability to detect species that we cannot currently detect reliably.
However, for most species, there is still much development required before they can be used in routine monitoring. Natural England has been exploring the further use of these methods for environmental monitoring for several years, delivering a series of reports which focus on the development of DNA-based methods with potential in a particular area.
One area of focus has been terrestrial invertebrate assemblages, which are time- consuming and difficult to monitor traditionally, for several years.
One of the main barriers preventing the further uptake of these methods are the gaps in current DNA reference libraries for these species.
This report is the first step towards rectifying this by providing a gap analysis to identify which of the 13,690 taxa listed in Natural England’s Pantheon database for invertebrates are represented in the widely used Barcode of Life Database (BOLD).