Conclusions
Advances in high throughput barcoding, together with progress in the field of automated image-based identification, are providing new ways to generate fundamental biodiversity data for arthropods. These exciting developments can be leveraged to address key data shortfalls for arthropods that have important implications for both conservation and management, and more applied ecological and evolutionary understanding. We have focused on islands, due to their biological importance and conservation concern, to assess how such developments can be integrated to advance the understanding, management and conservation of their biotas. Taken together, there is a strong rationale for global, coordinated and funded networks of island Genomic Observatories, to complement other forms of space and ground-based Earth observation. These ”biodiversity weather stations” could help monitor and understand climate and degradation-driven biodiversity trends, track the global spread of invasive species in real time, and be harbingers for changes that will ultimately manifest in continental systems. We conclude that high throughput barcoding can be applied to address multiple dimensions of existing data shortfalls for insular arthropods, and that ongoing developments in the area of image-based identification will likely lead to even higher efficiency. The DNA barcode provides a universal currency for measuring and comparing arthropod biodiversity and, if implemented within the framework of an island Genomic Observatories Network, can connect island biodiversity research at a global scale.