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1. Indigenous peoples and local communities as partners in the sequencing of global eukaryotic biodiversity

   https://doi.org/10.1038/s44185-023-00013-7  

   Mc Cartney, Ann. M.; Head, M. A.; Tsosie, K. S.; Sterner, B.; Glass, J. R.; Paez, S.; Geary, J.; Hudson, M. (December 2023, npj Biodiversity)

   The aim to sequence, catalog, and characterize the genomes of all of Earth’s eukaryotic biodiversity is the shared mission of many ongoing large-scale biodiversity genomics initiatives. Reference genomes of global flora and fauna have the potential to inform a broad range of major issues facing both biodiversity and humanity, such as the impact of climate change, the conservation of endangered species and ecosystems, public health crises, and the preservation and enhancement of ecosystem services. Biodiversity is dramatically declining: 28% of species being assessed by the IUCN are threatened with extinction, and recent reports suggest that a transformative change is needed to conserve and protect what remains. To provide a collective and global genomic response to the biodiversity crisis, many biodiversity genomics initiatives have come together, creating a network of networks under the Earth BioGenome Project. This network seeks to expedite the creation of an openly available, “public good” encyclopedia of high-quality eukaryotic reference genomes, in the hope that by advancing our basic understanding of nature, it can lead to the transformational scientific developments needed to conserve and protect global biodiversity. Key to completing this ambitious encyclopedia of reference genomes, is the ability to responsibly, ethically, legally, and equitably access and use samples from all of the eukaryotic species across the planet, including those that are under the custodianship of Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities. Here, the biodiversity genomics community is subject to the provisions codified in international, national, and local legislations and customary community norms, principles, and protocols. We propose a framework to support biodiversity genomic researchers, projects, and initiatives in building trustworthy and sustainable partnerships with communities, providing minimum recommendations on how to access, utilize, preserve, handle, share, analyze, and communicate samples, genomics data, and associated Traditional Knowledge obtained from, and in partnership with, Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities across the data-lifecycle. 

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2. Designing a Platform for Ethical Citizen Science: A Case Study of CitSci.org

   https://doi.org/http://doi.org/10.5334/cstp.227  

   Lynn, S.J.; Kaplan, N.; Newman, S.; Scarpino, R.; Newman, G. (March 2019, Citizen science)

   Involving the public in scientific discovery offers opportunities for engagement, learning, participation, and action. Since its launch in 2007, the CitSci.org platform has supported hundreds of community-driven citizen science projects involving thousands of participants who have generated close to a million scientific measurements around the world. Members using CitSci.org follow their curiosities and concerns to develop, lead, or simply participate in research projects. While professional scientists are trained to make ethical determinations related to the collection of, access to, and use of information, citizen scientists and practitioners may be less aware of such issues and more likely to become involved in ethical dilemmas. In this era of big and open data, where data sharing is encouraged and open science is promoted, privacy and openness considerations can often be overlooked. Platforms that support the collection, use, and sharing of data and personal information need to consider their responsibility to protect the rights to and ownership of data, the provision of protection options for data and members, and at the same time provide options for openness. This requires critically considering both intended and unintended consequences of the use of platforms, data, and volunteer information. Here, we use our journey developing CitSci.org to argue that incorporating customization into platforms through flexible design options for project managers shifts the decision-making from top-down to bottom-up and allows project design to be more responsive to goals. To protect both people and data, we developed—and continue to improve—options that support various levels of “open” and “closed” access permissions for data and membership participation. These options support diverse governance styles that are responsive to data uses, traditional and indigenous knowledge sensitivities, intellectual property rights, personally identifiable information concerns, volunteer preferences, and sensitive data protections. We present a typology for citizen science openness choices, their ethical considerations, and strategies that we are actively putting into practice to expand privacy options and governance models based on the unique needs of individual projects using our platform. 

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3. Nine changes needed to deliver a radical transformation in biodiversity measurement

   https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2519345123  

   Sutherland, William J; Burgess, Neil D; Edwards, Scott V; Jones, Julia_P G; Soltis, Pamela S; Tilman, David; Allen, Julie M; Andrianandrasana, Herizo T; Armour, Cathrine J; August, Tom; et al (March 2026, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences)

   Biodiversity is declining in many parts of the world. Biological diversity measurement and monitoring are fundamental to the assessment of the causes and consequences of environmental changes, identification of key areas for the protection of biodiversity or ecosystem services, determining the effectiveness of actions, and the creation of decision-support tools critical to maintaining a sustainable planet. Biodiversity measurement is rapidly changing due to advances in citizen science, image recognition, acoustic monitoring, environmental DNA, genomics, remote sensing, and AI. In this perspective, we outline the exciting opportunities these developments offer but also consider the challenges. Our key recommendations are to 1) Capitalize on the ability of novel technology to integrate data sources 2) agree to standard methods for data collection 3) ensure new technologies are calibrated with existing data; 4) fill data gaps by using emerging technologies and increasing capacity, especially in the tropics; 5) create living safeguarded databases of trusted information to reduce the risk of poisoning by AI hallucinated, or false, information; 6) ensure data generation is valued; 7) ensure respectful incorporation of Indigenous Knowledge; 8) ensure measurements enable the quantification of effectiveness of actions, and 9) increase the resilience of global datasets to technical and societal change. Radical new collaborations are needed between computer scientists, engineers, molecular biologists, data scientists, field ecologists, citizen scientists, Indigenous peoples, policymakers, and local communities to create the rigorous, resilient, accessible biodiversity information systems required to underpin policies and practices that ensure the maintenance and restoration of ecological systems. 

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4. Museum Genomics

   https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-genet-071719-020506  

   Card, Daren C.; Shapiro, Beth; Giribet, Gonzalo; Moritz, Craig; Edwards, Scott V. (November 2021, Annual Review of Genetics)

   Natural history collections are invaluable repositories of biological information that provide an unrivaled record of Earth's biodiversity. Museum genomics—genomics research using traditional museum and cryogenic collections and the infrastructure supporting these investigations—has particularly enhanced research in ecology and evolutionary biology, the study of extinct organisms, and the impact of anthropogenic activity on biodiversity. However, leveraging genomics in biological collections has exposed challenges, such as digitizing, integrating, and sharing collections data; updating practices to ensure broadly optimal data extraction from existing and new collections; and modernizing collections practices, infrastructure, and policies to ensure fair, sustainable, and genomically manifold uses of museum collections by increasingly diverse stakeholders. Museum genomics collections are poised to address these challenges and, with increasingly sensitive genomics approaches, will catalyze a future era of reproducibility, innovation, and insight made possible through integrating museum and genome sciences. 

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5. Amphibian conservation in Canada: state of the art and call for action

   https://doi.org/10.3389/famrs.2026.1773591  

   Ashpole, Sara L; Bennett, Amanda M; Calatayud, Natalie; Forzán, María J; Garner, Trenton WJ; Helbing, Caren C; Herman, Thomas B; Ovaska, Kristiina; Paszkowski, Cynthia; Randall, Lea; et al (June 2026, Frontiers in Amphibian and Reptile Science)

   In response to the widespread crisis of amphibian declines, the global IUCN Amphibian Specialist Group developed a new (2024) Amphibian Conservation Action Plan that provides a framework for conservation actions. We use this framework to review current procedures and practices and identify challenges specific for amphibians across Canada. Most species exist at the northern limits of their global distribution in Canada where amphibian species richness is greatest in the south that supports 90% of the country’s human population. This review is organized under five thematic schemes: 1) conservation planning, 2) assessing and managing wide-ranging threats, 3) documenting distributions and population trends, 4)ex-situtechniques, translocations, and management, 5) and amphibian genomics resources. In each section, we present a synthesis of recent literature (past ~10–15 years) and make recommendations to address data gaps and key issues. Sixty-eight percent of amphibians in Canada are listed at risk and therefore require conservation interventions to ensure their recovery. Habitat loss and fragmentation are major threats to many amphibians despite efforts to protect and restore important habitats. Climate change poses an overarching influence across the country with potentially serious but largely untracked impacts on amphibians. Research on pollution has focused on the impacts of oil sands extraction, agriculture, and emerging contaminants on amphibians and resulted in the identification of significant effects on growth, development, gene expression, and behavior. Progress has been made in the development and application of new and innovative approaches to conservation, including genetic tools and emerging non-invasive methods such as environmental DNA analyses that help uncover phylogenetic relationships, biodiversity, and evaluate responses to a changing environment, pollutants, and pathogens. These tools can also assist in breeding/translocation programs, conservation planning, habitat protection, and management. Several large-scale Canadian projects have contributed substantially to amphibian genomics resources. Indigenous-led environmental projects are gaining momentum but only rarely focus on amphibians. The challenge remains to identify and secure habitat of sufficient quantity and quality to support robust amphibian populations across Canadian landscapes and to manage threats timely through strategies that are inclusive of diverse perspectives, including Indigenous “ways of knowing”. 

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