Biodiversity Research and Conservation: Genomes, Populations, and Landscapes

Kelly Zamudio is a Professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Cornell University.

Abstract: Current anthropogenic changes to the environment demand new approaches in our study of the origin and maintenance of biodiversity. Comparative genetic and genomic studies are revolutionizing the analysis of functional variation in model taxa (those for which an entire genome has been sequenced) and current developments in data acquisition and analyses are now extending these benefits to non-model organisms, fostering new research fields such as ecological genomics, conservation genomics, landscape genomics, genomic phylogeography and the study of adaptive responses to selection in natural populations. I will describe ongoing studies in my lab that integrate genetic variation at neutral and functional genes, with field estimates of species demography, distribution, and natural history, to address questions about the microevolutionary factors that drive diversification in New World frogs, and those that threaten their persistence in a rapidly changing world.