Measuring biodiversity and monitoring ecological and evolutionary processes with genetic and genomic tools

Before this infusion of genetic diversity into conservation biology, conservation plans generally were concerned with preserving species, habitats, etc., as static units. The realization that genetic diversity plays a major role in conservation through a dynamic process (evolution) led to a major philosophical shift in conservation biology. Increasingly conservation plans focus on preserving and restoring the dynamic processes (both genetic and non-genetic) that shape adaptation, speciation, communities, and landscapes.