CBC’s The National aired a feature report on the large global DNA barcoding initiative being led by researchers from the University of Guelph’s Centre for Biodiversity Genomics.

CBG director Paul Hebert and post-doctoral researcher Michelle D’Souza spoke with the news outlet to describe BIOSCAN, a just-launched, seven-year-long field barcoding project that will see researchers at 2,500 sites around the world collecting plant, animal and insect specimens.

The aim is to identify every known plant and animal on the planet, as well as to discover new ones. The project will also probe interactions among the millions of species on Earth —  information that will be key to understanding how ecosystems work.

The project is being led by the International Barcode of Life consortium founded by Hebert and based at U of G.

Adding new urgency to the project is recent research suggesting that the planet’s biodiversity is dwindling, as species go extinct every year.

“We are at risk of erasing the books of life without ever reading them,” Hebert said.