As a postdoctoral scholar working with Drs. Craig Carlson and Debora Iglesias-Rodriguez at UCSB as part of the Santa Barbara Channel Marine Biological Observation Network (SBC MBON), our goal was to identify spatial and temporal patterns of diversity in marine eukaryote plankton within the Santa Barbara Channel. While traditional methods for quantifying plankton taxonomic diversity is dependent upon visual identification, we are leveraging a molecular approach in the form of DNA metabarcoding to detect fragments of DNA present in seawater samples. Check back for updates on this on-going project.