Barcoding the Chesapeake Bay invertebrates

The goal of this project is to develop a comprehensive barcode library for the macro-benthic invertebrates of the Chesapeake Bay from the tidal freshwater zone to the bay mouth. Our inventory includes epibenthic, fouling and infaunal species. The Chesapeake Bay is the largest estuary in the United States, and is subject to a large, high profile, and complex multi-organizational program of monitoring and restoration. This ecological/environmental effort depends on accurate identifications of species from diverse taxa from specimens of various life stages, gut content samples and environmental DNA. This invertebrate barcode library, part of the Chesapeake Bay Barcode Initiative (https://serc.si.edu/projects/species-diversity-chesapeake-bay), is a significant and critical advance towards ecosystem-based management, ecological restoration, and rapid response to marine invasions. This NCBI BioProject contains DNA barcode records that were generated with support from the federally-funded Smithsonian Institution DNA Barcode Network.