Category Archives: conservation

Gorillas (genomes) in the mist

Posted on 10 Apr, 2015 by Stacy Krueger-Hadfield

Mountain gorillas are an endangered great ape subspecies that number around 800 individuals, inhabiting mountain ranges in central Africa. They have been the subject of numerous field studies, but few genetic analyses have been carried out. Xue et al. (2015) sequenced … Continue reading →

Posted in bioinformatics, conservation, evolution, genomics, natural history, next generation sequencing, primates | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

l'oliva di mare: disturbance and genetic diversity

Posted on 27 Mar, 2015 by Stacy Krueger-Hadfield

Seagrasses are important ecosystem-engineers of coastal regions around the world. Previous work has demonstrated the correlation of high genotypic diversity with resistance (e.g., Hughes and Stachowicz 2004) and resilience (e.g., Reusch et al. 2005). In a recently accepted paper in Molecular Ecology, Jahnke, … Continue reading →

Posted in adaptation, community ecology, conservation, natural history, plants | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

The conservation genomics gap

Posted on 25 Feb, 2015 by Rob Denton

Is genomic data a boon or a hurdle for conservation? Aaron Shafer and Jochen Wolf take a strong stance on the issue in a newly-published review in Trends in Ecology and Evolution: genomic data could be really useful for conservation, but not … Continue reading →

Posted in conservation, genomics | Tagged | 6 Comments

Coral conservation through assisted evolution

Posted on 23 Feb, 2015 by Melissa DeBiasse

Coral reefs occupy a tiny portion of the world’s oceans (see map below) but their biodiversity is hugely disproportionate to their size. More than 450 million people from 109 countries live in close proximity to coral reefs and depend upon the … Continue reading →

Posted in adaptation, conservation, evolution, methods | Leave a comment

Show me the power

Posted on 20 Feb, 2015 by Stacy Krueger-Hadfield

Describing the patterns of genetic structure and mating system variation in presents challenges from the outset of sample collection to data analysis (see this post and this post). At the beginning of February, I had the pleasure to collaborate with Sean … Continue reading →

Posted in conservation, evolution, genomics, interview, methods, population genetics, software, Uncategorized | 1 Comment

Species and sensibility

Posted on 9 Jan, 2015 by Stacy Krueger-Hadfield

Pante et al. (2014) performed a literature review of marine population connectivity in order to illustrate the biased estimates of connectivity which can result from the failure to recognize an evolutionary-relevant unit, such as a species. When exploring the connectivity … Continue reading →

Posted in adaptation, community ecology, conservation, DNA barcoding, natural history, next generation sequencing, phylogenetics, population genetics, speciation, theory | 6 Comments

Exotic gene flow surveillance

Posted on 5 Dec, 2014 by Stacy Krueger-Hadfield

Exotic forest plantations often cover large areas and, as such, may contribute female gametes, male gametes and/or zygotes to native stands. In seed plants, these three components of exotic gene flow have not been distinguished, though they will have different … Continue reading →

Posted in conservation, Molecular Ecology, the journal, population genetics, Uncategorized | Leave a comment

The forest resounding at rare intervals with the note of … reproductive isolation

Posted on 14 Nov, 2014 by Stacy Krueger-Hadfield

Hybrid zones are often used as a window with which to gaze upon the evolutionary process (Barton and Hewitt 1989). With the advent of genomic tools, it is possible to detect the genomic signatures and the architecture underlying reproductive isolation. In … Continue reading →

Posted in adaptation, conservation, genomics, next generation sequencing, population genetics, speciation | 1 Comment

Is genetics a requirement for restoration?

Posted on 12 Nov, 2014 by Rob Denton

The fields of conservation and genetics have relied heavily on one another for quite a while now (they even made an aptly named journal together!). Using genetic information is now an accepted, and even expected, step in recognizing and protecting … Continue reading →

Posted in community ecology, conservation, Molecular Ecology, the journal, natural history, population genetics | Tagged , , | 1 Comment