Capturing Conservation in the Post-Genomics Era: A Book Review of "Conservation and the Genomics of Populations"

Conservation genetics is a relatively new discipline, and yet has rapidly evolved in the last decade with massive advances in sequencing technologies. Here, we review the newest edition of an influential textbook in the field, “Conservation and the Genomics of Populations”, which seeks to bridge the transition from population genetics to genomics and its application to conservation management. This textbook—complete with 24 chapters (one completely new), 25 guest boxes, and two new authors over the previous edition—navigates the rich and sometimes complex history of conservation and population genetics, while also providing a comprehensive catalog of how genomics broadens our understanding of diversity in a changing world. Despite some sections requiring an advanced understanding of population genetic theory, we foresee this text being used as a reference for conservation geneticists and for teaching upper level undergraduate or graduate students. While we anticipate the field of conservation genetics will continue to rapidly advance with new technologies, this textbook provides a strong foundation of population genetics, while also celebrating the new horizon of genomics for conservation management.