Publication and use of genetic tools in conservation management applications—A systematic review

Abstract

Abstract Genetics tools are used in applied conservation management for taxonomic identification, delineation of management units, management of wild populations, captive breeding and reintroduction and control of invasive species, disease and hybridisation. To assess the extent to which genetic tools are being used for applied conservation management, we conducted a systematic literature review of over 53,767 papers focussing on wildlife research that reported results on species delineation, translocations and population augmentation. We synthesised information on papers that used genetics tools in an expressly applied manner across all wildlife species. We found that the application of genetics tools in conservation management was biased towards fishes, mammals and birds and northern hemisphere locations, especially the United States and Europe. Despite genetics tools being a highly published topic, it was difficult to find published applications of these tools in both the primary and the grey literature. Of the 115 papers on 152 species that could be considered an applied use of a genetics tool expressly for conservation management, only 49 had definable applied outcomes. The remaining 66 made recommendations, but it was often unclear if the recommendations were ever used to make conservation management decisions because of the time‐lag between publication of the initial recommendation and publication of the results of the use of the tool in a conservation management situation, as well as the lack of dissemination in the primary literature. Our study highlights the relative low publication rate of applications of genetics tools compared to the general conservation genetics field. These tools appear to have either a low percentage of translations into publication (‘conservation genetics publishing gap’) or a poor uptake among wildlife conservation managers (‘conservation genetics gap’)—the two are indistinguishable in this review. Policy implications. Conservation genetics tools must be brought to the forefront of conservation policy and management. Users should support the use of systems and accessible databases to increase the uptake of genetics tools for conservation in applied management decisions for wildlife, reducing barriers to disseminating the results to other end users and interested parties.