Current status, future opportunities, and remaining challenges in landscape genetics [Chapter 14]

Abstract

Landscape genetics has advanced the field of evolutionary ecology by providing a direct focus on relationships between landscape patterns and population processes, such as gene flow, selection, and genetic drift. This chapter discusses the current and emerging challenges and opportunities, which focus and facilitate future progress in the field. It presents ten conclusions drawn about the current state-of-the-art in landscape genetics. Landscape genomics is one way to fully grasp the various influences that landscape can have on neutral and adaptive genetic variation. A major challenge in landscape genomics has been differentiating signals of selection as detected by changes in allele frequencies from demographic history. The authors urge researchers in landscape genetics to focus more strongly on developing conceptual and theoretical foundations for landscape genetics, and suggest that synthesizing results provided by existing studies is one way to achieve a more general understanding of landscape influences on genetics.

Citation

Balkenhol, Niko; Cushman, Samuel A.; Waits, Lisette P.; Storfer, Andrew. 2016. Current status, future opportunities, and remaining challenges in landscape genetics [Chapter 14]. In: Balkenhol, Niko; Cushman, Samuel A.; Storfer, Andrew T.; Waits, Lisette P., eds. Landscape Genetics: Concepts, Methods, Applications, First Edition. John Wiley and Sons Ltd. p. 247-255.