The project is designed to be handled by a postdoctoral researcher and addresses highly topical questions, the ecosystem reaction and threatening of biodiversity patterns by current environmental change, in a rapidly evolving research field - the use of environmental and fossil DNA for exploring past and present biodiversity and environments. The Project will establish and apply DNA metabarcoding approaches using next-generation sequencing techniques and apply these on spatial scales (profiling of recent populations of animals, plants, protists and bacteria) as well as on temporal scales (paleoenvironmental DNA profiling of selected sediments).