9424595 Spitze The maintenance of genetic diversity is of central importance to establishing management strategies for conservation measures involving endangered species. This is because high levels of genetic variation are assumed to enhance the probability of a populations survival over time. Loss of genetic diversity resulting from a reduction in population size may lead to inbreeding depression increasing the risk of extinction. Also, the rate of genetic change is a function of the amount of genetic variation in quantitative traits. Thus, populations with high genetic variation are more adaptable than those with low variation. This conservation and restoration biology research will test the utility and predictive power of conventional molecular genetic techniques that are commonly used to assess genetic diversity to quantify the level of genetic variation in natural populations. The results of this research will shed light on this important conservation issue by examining the relationship between quantitative genetic variation and allozyme heterozygosity, and quantitative genetic variation and diversity measures obtained by molecular techniques. Overall, these results will investigate the empirical basis for the use of molecular markers to assess adaptive potential of populations with high and low genetic variability.
