Biodiversity

Studying the intersection of biodiversity, conservation and the latest tools in biology such as genomics and synthetic biology is perhaps the youngest group at the Lab. With the effects of climate change already hitting various habitats in the country there is a visible decline in biodiversity particularly in bird species observed throughout the year and invertebrates, especially insects.

The plight is worsened due to the dearth of data that can guide education, research and policy. The group is working on various attempts at cataloguing and surveying insects around us using innovative tools such as online crowd sourcing. These include the Wings of Nature project in collaboration with Code for Pakistan and the Firefly Conservation project. We are also developing otherwise untapped tools for teaching conservation biology and biology in general, such as terraria and winogradsky columns with the good folks at Dar Ul Hekmet.