Fundamentals of Conservation Biology. Malcolm L. Hunter, Jr.

For background on the rapidly evolving methodology used by conservation geneticists, such as environmental DNA and metagenomics and mitogenomics for biodiversity monitoring, see Bohmann et al. (2014), Yu et al. (2012), Schnell et al. (2015), and Tang et al. (2015). There also is a journal, Conservation Genetics, which along with Molecular Ecology publishes many articles on application of genetics to conservation.

TOPICS FOR DISCUSSION

      1 How can you tell, by using genetics, what the geographic boundaries of a population are?

      2 What can you assume is true about the level of migration between populations that have very different allele frequencies from each other?

      3 Could a mutation have no importance in the current environment (i.e. confer no advantage or disadvantage) and then become either deleterious or beneficial later? How?

      4 Why might managed translocation (i.e. moving plants or animals from one place to another to increase genetic diversity) create potential genetic problems for wild populations?

      5 If a population experiences a loss of genetic diversity, is it doomed to extinction because of its loss of genetic diversity?

      6 What is your opinion on application of genetic engineering methods as an approach for eliminating populations of invasive species? Or its role in resurrecting extinct species, as is currently being attempted for the wooly mammoth and thylacine (Tasmanian wolf)?LocusIndividual123 1aaBBCC2aaBbCC3AaBBCC4aaBbCC5AaBBCC6AABBCC7aaBBCC8AABBCC9AABBCC10AaBBCC

      7 What are the frequencies of alleles for each locus?

      8 What are the frequencies of genotypes for each locus?

      9 What is the polymorphism for this population using the 95% criterion (the frequency of the most common allele <95%)?

      10 What is the average heterozygosity for this population?

      11 What would genotype frequencies be at locus 2 in this population if it were in Hardy–Weinberg equilibrium?

      12 If individuals 1–6 were females and individuals 7–10 were males, what would be the effective population size of this population?

      13 What portion of the genetic variance of this population would be likely to remain after three generations of random genetic drift? (Use the effective population size calculated in the preceding question.)

       Answers

      1 Locus 1: a = 0.55, A = 0.45; Locus 2: b = 0.10, B = 0.90; Locus 3: C = 1.00

      2 Locus 1: aa = 0.4, AA = 0.3, Aa = 0.3; Locus 2: Bb = 0.2, BB = 0.8; Locus 3: CC = 1

      3 0.67 because loci 1 and 2 are polymorphic

      4 0.17 (0.3Aa + 0.2Bb)/3 = 0.17

      5 bb = 0.01, Bb = 0.18, BB = 0.81

      6 9.6: (4 × 6 × 4)/(6 + 4)

      7 0.85: [1 − 1/(2 × 9.6)]³

      PART II

      Threats to Biodiversity

       The last word in ignorance is the man who says of an animal or plant: “What good is it?” If the land mechanism as a whole is good, then every part is good, whether we understand it or not. If the biota, in the course of aeons, has built something we like but do not understand, then who but a fool would discard seemingly useless parts? To keep every cog and wheel is the first precaution of intelligent tinkering.

       Aldo Leopold

       When the last individual of a race of living things breathes no more, another heaven and another earth must pass before such a one can be seen again.

       William Beebe

       … the worst thing that will probably happen – in fact is already well under way – is not energy depletion, economic collapse, conventional war, or even the expansion of totalitarian governments. As terrible as these catastrophes would be for us, they can be repaired within a few generations. The one process now ongoing that will take millions of years to correct is the loss of genetic and species diversity by the destruction of natural habitats. This is the folly our descendants are least likely to forgive us.

       Edward O. Wilson

       Humans, unlike any other multicellular species in Earth’s history, have emerged as a global force that is transforming the ecology of an entire planet.

       Erle C. Ellis

       Extinction is forever.

       The Great Auk, a nearly meter‐tall seabird whose breeding colonies occurred on isolated islands widely scattered across the north Atlantic, was harvested to extinction by 1850. (John Gerrard Keulemans/Wikimedia)