Concluding remarks

Abstract

This book was largely aimed at defining and assessing the role of population genetics in conservation biology. The topics include the widely recognized problems of genetic variation losses under random drift, inbreeding, reduced migration rates, and increased selective pressures under stress or widely fluctuating environments, and they are mainly addressed against an ecological background. The necessity to additionally consider social behavior, metapopulation structure, asexuality, and certain population dynamic aspects for the conservation of some species is also treated briefly. The use of molecular variation in systematics and some strategic decisions about genetic variance maximization in the conserved population or community units are analysed. Finally, the case studies and scenarios illustrate the application of genetic information in conservation practices. The important role geneticists share with other biologists became clearer in our minds with the contributions to this book. The need to focus our research on genetic issues has been pointed out by several authors, e.g., the need for better designed experiments to evaluate inbreeding depression and its consequences in relation to changes in population size. Our knowledge in this field has rapidly advanced during the last decade (for an excellent treatment of inbreeding and outbreeding topics, see also Thornhill, 1993).