Portuguese research in the Arctic: DNA samples collected in extreme environments

12th October 2023

The biosampler is a Portuguese technology developed by the Institute for Systems and Computer Engineering, Technology and Science (INESC TEC) and the Interdisciplinary Centre of Marine and Environmental Research (CIIMAR). The technology has been evolving over the years of collaboration between both entities; more recently, it was tested in another extreme environment, descending to 15 meters deep in water at a temperature of four degrees Celsius - within the scope of the Connect2Oceans and MicroArctic projects.

The Portuguese team that travelled to the Arctic aimed to explore the current technology even further. In this sense, they coupled the biosampler to the IRIS robot, developed by INESC TEC. This action allowed the autonomous collection of samples by researchers.

"The biosampler is a sensor shaped like a cylinder, which we were able to program to collect samples. It has several benefits, particularly when compared to traditional collection methods, which are manual and involve collecting samples in Niskin bottles - the contents of which are filtered only in the laboratory. The fact that we coupled the biosampler to IRIS, with both operating autonomously at that depth and temperature, was also another engineering challenge", explained Alfredo Martins, a researcher at INESC TEC and a professor at ISEP.

The possibility of scheduling the collection times and dates, the collection of a greater number of samples, the reduction of contamination errors (since the filtration is done on site), and the fact that samples are prepared to laboratory analysis are some of the main benefits.

The samples collected by the biosampler and the standard manual method are currently at CIIMAR for analysis. The idea is to extract and sequence the eDNA to evaluate the autonomous system’s ability to assess the biodiversity of remote environments. This technology will revolutionize the current biomonitoring in marine ecosystems in the Arctic Ocean, aiming to understand the impact of climate change on these biological communities,” explained Catarina Magalhães, a researcher at CIIMAR.

The researchers set a two-year goal of operating this technology at a depth of 1.000 meters. Until then, the actions taking place in extreme environments, e.g., the Arctic, will continue to require human support - namely the collection of samples at more than 40 meters deep (current limit). However, the biosampler is expected to support both the depth and temperature conditions necessary to overcome said challenges.