Thirty years of conservation genetics in New Zealand: what have we learnt?

ABSTRACT Few areas of conservation biology have grown at quite the same pace as conservation genetics. New Zealand exemplifies this growth with a 50-100-fold increase in publications since a review in 1994. A wide array of techniques in the fields of population genetics, molecular systematics and molecular biology has now become available to conservation biologists to apply to management. Here I review developments categorised broadly into six headings: measuring diversity among individuals; inbreeding; selection and drift; identification of individuals; measuring differentiation (demes, populations, MUs, ESUs, species, hybrids); and other molecular biological approaches. The vast range of available techniques and analyses makes it more important than ever that appropriate tools are chosen for the questions posed, and applied to where need is greatest, if we are to manage our biological diversity successfully in the twenty-first century.