Abstract

From Ocean Samples to Research Data: Bridging Science and Technology Through eDNA Data Science 

Modern biodiversity research increasingly sits at the intersection of science and technology. At the Minderoo OceanOmics Centre at The University of Western Australia, environmental DNA (eDNA) is used to generate large scale data for understanding marine biodiversity. Turning an ocean sample into meaningful biodiversity information involves a complex workflow covering laboratory processing, sequencing, bioinformatics and data management. 

In this talk, I will follow the journey from ocean sample to research ready data, focusing on how data generated across the eDNA workflow is captured, validated and connected. I will introduce the different data components involved, including sample and DNA metadata, sequencing and taxonomic data. 

Also, I will present how I have developed automated R, Python and SQL workflows to bring these components together within a relational database. This includes validating relationships between sample and sequence data, standardising metadata, processing FAIR datasets, automating data loading and quality checks, and supporting automated data publication to OBIS and GBIF. I will also show how centralised data can support downstream visualisation and data exploration. 

Using examples from the OceanOmics eDNA workflow, I will show how these approaches transform complex biological data into structured, validated and reusable research datasets. This reduces manual processing and supports more consistent and reproducible biodiversity research at scale.