Conference Agenda

Intraspecific genetic diversity stands as a crucial pillar of biodiversity, playing a vital role in species adaptation, survival and ecosystem resilience. Despite its importance, there remains a gap in understanding the broad-scale patterns of genetic diversity, hindering the assessment of how well Protected Areas represent it. A notable challenge stems from the inconsistent storage of genetic data in repositories, particularly concerning geographic information and other metadata. Here we focus on the genetic diversity of amphibians and reptiles in six regions: the Iberian Peninsula, Northwestern Africa, the Arabian Peninsula, Madagascar, Northern Australia, and the Brazilian Atlantic Forest. To address this, we developed an automated workflow to extract data for species in these regions, encompassing raw genetic data, corresponding geographic locations, and relevant literature. Spatial patterns of genetic diversity were analyzed in these regions, comparing results between the automated and the combined automated dataset plus data manually retrieved from literature. We also identified cryptic diversity within species, assessed which species had sufficient genetic data for inferring spatial patterns of intraspecific genetic diversity , and examined potential biases in genetic sampling (geographic, taxonomic, and conservation status). The study concludes by outlining challenges and opportunities in repurposing existing genetic data for effective conservation planning.

French Guiana is an overseas territory of France which harbours a tropical rainforest with a vast biodiversity, including ca. 1800 tree species. This forest suffers pressure from mining, climate change, and logging in the permanent forest domain. Conserving the rainforest and achieving sustainable timber production to meet the demands of a growing human population is a considerable challenge. We present an overview of our ongoing research in ecological and conservation genomics in several tree species of French Guiana. We showed how tree species complexes of the genera Symphonia and Eschweilera are adapted to microenvironmental conditions relating to moisture, soil chemistry, and light. In the most harvested timber tree Dicorynia guianensis we use estimates of regional and local population genetic structure, population demographic histories, and genomic signatures of adaptation to derive sustainable management guidelines under future climates. We have used a combination of microsatellites, genomic, and transcriptomic approaches to characterise the genetic diversity of the highly endangered Aniba rosaeodora, and identify genes implicated in the production of rosewood essential oil. We also present tools under development for simplified field delimitation of morphologically similar species of Eschweilera in view of sustainable harvesting of common species while conserving rare related species

Genetic data have been used for decades in conservation decision-making, including for the identification and recovery of species listed under the U.S. Endangered Species Act. Technological advances have made much larger genomic datasets available for at-risk species, improving the precision and resolution of metrics such as genetic diversity, while bringing previously inaccessible parameters like adaptive differentiation and individual inbreeding within reach. The advantages of these data are clear for the targeted species, yet the vast majority of at-risk species will never benefit from genetic studies. In this talk, I will discuss how genetic and genomic data can be leveraged across the data-availability spectrum to inform at-risk species conservation: from direct molecular studies that inform conservation questions such as delineating management units and evaluating evolutionary potential, to the use of proxies for genetic diversity and genetic erosion within unsampled species. The magnitude of the biodiversity crisis requires the application of rapid, large-scale assessments of intraspecific diversity to stem diversity losses. Genetic and genomic studies combined with population genetic theory and proxies can be leveraged to expand the reach of these data beyond sampled species to prioritize conservation and avert these ongoing losses.

Intraspecific genetic diversity is a fundamental component of biodiversity, contributing to ecosystem function and resilience, and determining the capacity of populations to adapt to global environmental changes. Yet, genetic/genomic data and approaches have not been widely applied in conservation management and decision making. In this presentation I will explore the use of genomic approaches in bat research and conservation. Research carried out in my group integrates genomic tools with ecological and geographic data and modelling approaches to assess and predict how climate and land-use changes affect biodiversity. Working closely with conservation practitioners, we developed genomic approaches capable of providing evidence of historic population changes and their drivers, and have applied our results to set species recovery targets. Our work has highlighted the importance of incorporating adaptive variation, movement processes and historic population changes when assessing biodiversity vulnerability to global environmental changes and informing adaptive conservation management.

Genetic diversity is fundamental for ensuring species' persistence by preventing inbreeding depression and preserving the evolutionary potential to face environmental challenges. Understanding the spatial distribution of intraspecific genetic diversity is therefore essential in spatial conservation planning. We investigated the spatial distribution of genetic diversity for 22 vertebrate taxa endemic to the Italian peninsula and evaluated the effectiveness of protected areas (PAs) in preserving areas of high genetic diversity from a climate change perspective. We i) modeled taxa distribution under current and future climate conditions, ii) identified current and future locations of taxon-specific areas of high genetic diversity, iii) evaluated the PAs coverage of those areas at a single- and multi-species level. PAs covered averaged < 20% of the areas of high genetic diversity. In an intermediate future emissions scenario (SSP 2-4.5), these areas are predicted to lose total and protected surface by 2100 for >70% of the taxa. These results identify a gap in the Italian PAs' coverage of genetic diversity and should be considered when planning their expansion according to the European Union biodiversity strategy for 2030.