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SUMMARY:The power of non-invasive approaches to conservation science - Dr 
 Sam Wasser\, University of Washington 
DTSTART:20171101T170000Z
DTEND:20171101T180000Z
UID:TALK93805@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:E Allen
DESCRIPTION:Conservation science has many challenges. Human pressures are 
 widespread\, come in multiple forms\, yet individual pressures rarely occu
 r in isolation. The same can be said of natural pressures. How do we separ
 ate these and determine what pressures to mitigate? How do we compensate f
 or the time lag between a disturbance and its demographic outcome when oth
 er events occur in-between? How do we monitor the impacts of mitigation ef
 forts on a time scale that allows course corrections before it’s too lat
 e? Addressing these questions often requires measures collected over large
  spatial but short temporal scales\, which is in itself a challenge.\n\nMy
  lab has pioneered highly accessible noninvasive tools to address such cha
 llenges. We developed methods to extract DNA\, hormones and toxins from fe
 ces\, located by detection dogs with very low collection bias. DNA can det
 ermine species and individual identities\, sex as well as what the animal 
 ate. This can provide reliable capture-mark-recapture data free of capture
  heterogeneity\, geospatial genetic maps to distinguish populations\, incl
 uding poaching hotspots\, assess resources selection and measure dietary o
 verlap associated with interspecific competition. Endocrine measures of st
 ress\, reproductive and nutritional health from these same samples can hel
 p tie disturbance events to their eventual demographic outcomes. Impacts o
 f toxin exposure can simultaneously be measured from these samples.\n\nI w
 ill attempt to illustrate the value of this approach through case studies 
 conducted by my lab on a diverse array of species.  I will then open the f
 loor to discuss applications to your own work.
LOCATION:Large Seminar Room\, Level 1\, The David Attenborough Building
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