‘Living library’: inside the marine biobanks racing to protect ocean species from extinction
Stephanie Convery and Petra Stock
Australia’s biobanks store everything from seeds of native plants to the cells and tissue of threatened animal species In the mudflats of Swan Bay, Victoria, royal spoonbills sweep their paddle-shaped bills through shallow water. Nearby, under the grass-covered roof of the Queenscliff marine research centre, a team of scientists from Deakin University are trying to bring the ecosystems those birds and many others rely on back from the brink. Some of that involves associate professor Prue Francis