Book Review: Conservation and the Genomics of Populations: Third edition

Abstract

Fred W. Allendorf, W. Chris Funk, Sally N. Aitken, Margaret Byrne, and Gordon Luikart. Oxford University Press, 2022. The familiar story of Noah is timeworn, maybe a bit cliched, and probably overused. But it does remind one how often conservationists reference the fable as a tale of our own time and why. We recognize now that we cannot create diversity; we can only conserve what natural selection has honed fit for purpose over 3.8 billion years of evolution. And what we mean by conservation today explicitly comprises genetic variation at the individual, population, species, and phylogenic scales. So, “conservation” is really “conservation genetics”, and the preservation of biodiversity is the goal. And if N = 2 is not enough after all, how many are? A sort of brute force genetic conservation might be effected by preserving as much native habitat and as many survivors as possible, as fast as possible, and leaving them be. But as that is rarely possible, modern conservation, and this book, aims for a fine-tuned approach. If we are to manage what diversity we have left, much less hope for survival into the distant future, we must understand the genetic dynamics of these living, breeding organisms contending with their environments. The general principles explained in Conservation and the Genomics of Populations help us discover and understand what natural selection has evolved and what we have broken, and how, perhaps, we might fix it. This latest edition of a text long recognized for its outstanding quality covers the basics of population genetics, describes what happens when population sizes are reduced, and outlines how to bring this understanding to bear on conservation management. All the nuts and bolts of how to preserve as much genetic diversity as possible. The idea of saving all living things is not new, but the methods are different.