Applied marine conservation genetics - resource management

Question 1

How we can use the information provided by molecular genetics to support resource management?

Answer 1

• Management of threatened species.
• Marine Protected Areas (MPAs).
• Commercially important fish stocks.
• Management of traded species

Question 2

why is it important to conserve genetic diversity?

Answer 2

Provides the ‘raw material’ for the maintenance of species diversity over longer, evolutionary time-scales.

Ability for a species to adapt to environmental change.

Question 3

problems with commercially exploited fish

Answer 3

trends towards earlier maturation and
smaller sizes – as a result of fisheries induced evolution.