Genetics and conservation
About
Community data is critical for monitoring freshwater and terrestrial systems. Yet the taxonomic resolution generally used in monitoring limits the extent to which we can gain a detailed understanding of community response to change.
Developing an understanding of species through their genetic data enables researchers to gain insights into how past environmental and geological events have shaped species distributions, and how species will respond to management such as habitat restoration.
Research in this area is using cutting edge deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) technologies to study alpine headwaters and the rivers/creeks of the Murray-Darling Basin to better understand the species, populations and conservation of freshwater fish, macroinvertebrates and zooplankton.