Abstract
In response to ever-increasing anthropogenic changes to natural ecosystems, regional, national and international organizations have established guidelines for monitoring biological diversity. Most monitoring programs, however, do not take full advantage of the potential afforded by molecular genetic markers, which can provide information relevant to both ecological and evolutionary time frames, while costing less and being more sensitive and reliable than traditional monitoring approaches. As several molecular and computational approaches are relatively new, many technical and theoretical issues remain to be resolved. Here, we illustrate how DNA and population genetic data can provide valuable information, often unattainable via other approaches, for monitoring species of management, conservation and ecological interest.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 25-33 |
| Number of pages | 9 |
| Journal | Trends in Ecology and Evolution |
| Volume | 22 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Jan 2007 |
Funding
We thank Michael Hansen, Kevin McKelvey, Jeff Copeland, and two anonymous reviewers for helpful comments; John Boulanger for comments on Box 1 ; Luke Barrett for providing examples of genetic monitoring from the plant research community; and Stefan Himmer and John McMillan for their photographs of the Lake Owikeno brown bear and the Steelhead, respectively. Partial support to write this review was provided to M.K.S. through the Rocky Mountain Research Station and a PECASE award; G.L. was supported by the Luso-American Foundation (FLAD).