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SUMMARY:The Power of Non-invasive Approaches to Conservation Science - Pro
 fessor Samuel K Wasser\, Department of Biology\, University of Washington 
 on sabbatical\, Department of Zoology\, Cambridge University
DTSTART:20180502T150000Z
DTEND:20180502T160000Z
UID:TALK101761@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Fiona Roby
DESCRIPTION:Conservation science has many challenges.  Human pressures are
  widespread\, come in multiple forms\, yet individual pressures rarely occ
 ur in isolation. The same can be said of natural pressures. How do we part
 ition these pressures and determine those most critical to mitigate? How d
 o we compensate for the time lag between a disturbance and its demographic
  outcome when other events occur in-between? How do we monitor the impacts
  of mitigation efforts on a time scale that allows course corrections befo
 re it’s too late?  Addressing these questions often requires measures co
 llected over large spatial but short temporal scales\, which in itself is 
 a challenge.\n\nMy lab has pioneered highly accessible noninvasive tools t
 o address such challenges. We developed methods to extract DNA\, hormones 
 and toxins from feces\, located by detection dogs with high frequency and 
 very low collection bias. DNA from these samples can determine species and
  individual identities\, sex\, what the animal ate\, and composition of th
 e host’s microbiome. These measures can\, in turn\, provide reliable cap
 ture-mark-recapture data free of capture heterogeneity\, geospatial geneti
 c maps to distinguish populations\, resources selection and dietary overla
 p data associated with interspecific competition. Endocrine measures of st
 ress\, reproductive and nutritional health\, as well as microbiome from th
 ese same samples can help tie disturbance events to their eventual demogra
 phic outcomes. Impacts of toxin exposure can simultaneously be measured an
 d examined in relation to other co-occurring pressures. \n\nI will attempt
  to illustrate the value of this approach through case studies conducted b
 y my lab on a diverse array of species.  I will then open the floor to dis
 cuss applications to your own work.\n
LOCATION:Lecture Theatre 2\, Department of Veterinary Medicine
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