On applications of landscape genetics

Recent assertions in the literature (e.g., Keller et al. 2015) suggest that landscape genetic research has been infrequently applied by practitioners. We were interested to test this assertion, which is difficult to assess, since applications may not be detectable through searches of peer-reviewed l...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Conservation genetics 2016-08, Vol.17 (4), p.753-760
Main Authors: Bowman, Jeff, Janet E. Greenhorn, Robby R. Marrotte, Michelle M. McKay, Kimberley Y. Morris, Melanie B. Prentice, Morgan Wehtje
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animal Genetics and Genomics
Biodiversity
Biomedical and Life Sciences
Conservation Biology/Ecology
Ecological research
Ecology
Evolutionary Biology
Genetic research
Genetics
Internet
Invasive species
Landscape ecology
landscapes
Life Sciences
pathogens
Perspective
planning
Plant Genetics and Genomics
Population status
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Summary:Recent assertions in the literature (e.g., Keller et al. 2015) suggest that landscape genetic research has been infrequently applied by practitioners. We were interested to test this assertion, which is difficult to assess, since applications may not be detectable through searches of peer-reviewed literature. Producing publications may not be a goal of practitioners. We developed a method to search the internet for evidence of research applications and evaluated 25 different research fields in the natural sciences. We found that fields with more publications also had more applications, but the field of landscape genetics was less applied than expected based on the number of peer-reviewed publications—only about 4 % of landscape genetics articles were applied. In fact, all research fields in genetics or evolutionary biology were under-applied compared to ‘whole organism’, ecological research fields. This result suggests the lack of applications in landscape genetics may be due to a systemic under-application of genetics research, perhaps related to a lack of understanding of genetics by practitioners. We did find some evidence of landscape genetic applications however, which we sorted into 5 categories: (1) identification of evolutionarily significant units for conservation, (2) managing pathogens and invasive species, (3) natural heritage systems planning, (4) assessing population status, and (5) restoration of populations.
ISSN:1566-0621
1572-9737
DOI:10.1007/s10592-016-0834-5