UAS Biology faculty Dave Tallmon will give a talk and participate in a working group on Genetic Monitoring at the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis at UC Santa Barbara, California on March 10. Tallmon’s talk will focus on available software to monitor genetic changes in wild marine populations.

“Genetic monitoring has the potential to become a valuable tool for resource managers in the management and conservation of populations,” writes Tallmon. “Rapid recent advances in molecular genetic techniques now make it relatively easy and inexpensive to quantify temporal changes in the genetics of populations over tens or even hundreds of years. However, it is currently unknown under what circumstances genetic monitoring would provide valuable information or what genetic data are required for effective genetic monitoring. We propose a working group that will address these issues in order to provide guidance for resource managers and policy makers. We're trying to develop a general framework for monitoring any species anywhere in the world.  The workgroup includes participants from Sweden, Denmark, France, and across the US.