PaleoEcoGen. Unlocking the power of ancient environmental DNA to understand past ecological trends

PaleoEcoGen is a new working group that was launched with the aim of bringing together scientists from around the world who use ancient environmental DNA (ancient eDNA) as a novel proxy to examine the response of past biological communities to environmental changes (pastglobalchanges.org/paleoecogen). We are particularly interested in exploiting the added value of these emerging ancient eDNA tools to advance our knowledge of critical transitions in Earth's Quaternary history. To this end, we aim to stimulate and enhance international ancient eDNA research by organizing topical workshops to discuss new methodologies in the field (including synthetic analyses and modeling approaches), and to coordinate research efforts for bigger picture analyses that, ultimately, will help to inform conservation efforts and future biodiversity assessments.