Workshop Announcement: Advances in environmental DNA for monitoring and ecological studies of marine mammals 9th April 2024, at the 35th European Cetacean Society Conference, Catania, Italy 10th-12th April 2024 Description: The rapidly developing field of environmental DNA provides new capabilities that enhance and expand existing approaches to understanding species distributions, habitat use and trophic interactions. Such knowledge is central to understanding marine mammal exposure and vulnerability to human activities, and development of policy responses and conservation action. In this one-day workshop we will provide a forum for researchers to share the latest eDNA research that advances understanding of marine mammal ecology and monitoring capabilities, and to discuss protocols and best practice for the design and implementation of studies. We also want to facilitate networking opportunities and discussion of how a coordinated Europe-wide marine mammal eDNA monitoring network could be developed, including issues such as standards for molecular methods and data analysis pipelines, and the long-term research and policy needs of both researchers and end-users. The workshop will include sessions for invited/submitted presentations, round table discussions on methods and best practice, and breakout groups to discuss issues relating to developing marine mammal eDNA monitoring networks and policy needs, closing with a synthesis session to summarise all the work covered. There may be potential for the workshop synthesis to be written up as a review or perspective article, authored by workshop participants. Sign up: https://www.europeancetaceansociety.eu/workshops Have some cool marine mammal eDNA results...? If you are interested in contributing a short presentation/poster as part of the workshop we'd love to hear from, so please get in touch. Organizers: Simon Goodman (School of Biology, University of Leeds, UK; s.j.goodman@leeds.ac.uk<mailto:s.j.goodman@leeds.ac.uk>), Elena Valsecchi (Dept. Environmental & Earth Sciences, University of Milano-Bicocca; elena.valsecchi@unimib.it<mailto:elena.valsecchi@unimib.it>) ============================================================ Dr Simon Goodman School of Biology Manton Building University of Leeds Woodhouse Lane Leeds, LS2 9JT, UK Tel: +44-(0)113-3432561, Fax: +44-(0)113-3432835 Email: s.j.goodman@leeds.ac.uk<mailto:s.j.goodman@leeds.ac.uk> Web: http://www.goodmanlab.org/ Twitter: @DrSimon_Goodman BlueSky: @phoca-sapiens.bsky.social Sustainable Ecosystems and Adaptation Research Pillar Lead Ecology & Evolution Research Group Lead, School of Biology Director of PGR Studies, School of Biology ============================================================