Link to the report: https://www.research-collection.ethz.ch/handle/20.500.11850/661655
Final Report of the pilot study for a monitoring of genetic diversity published
New research article: Minimally destructive hDNA extraction method for retrospective genetics of pinned historical Lepidoptera specimens
Link to the article: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-024-63587-7
New HotSpot article: Genetische Vielfalt im Blick – Die Schweiz schliesst Monitoring-Lücke
Insight int some of the results of the pilot study and interview of Martin C. Fischer and Jérôme Frei: https://www.research-collection.ethz.ch/handle/20.500.11850/710708
New research article: Restoring genetic diversity to facilitate the implementation of the EU Nature Restoration Law
Link to the article: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2025.110995
ETH-News article about the pilot study
ETH-News interviewed project manager Martin C. Fischer for an article about the genetic diversity monitoring pilot study, giving a comprehensive overview of the project and its aims as well as interesting insights to preliminary results: link to the article.
Publication: monitoring of genetic diversity takes shape
The latest issue of HOTSPOT magazine focuses on biodiversity monitoring and presents ongoing and new projects, programs and technologies. Our pilot study is represented with an article about our work and about the challenges of monitoring genetic diversity.
HOTSPOT magazine is published in German and French and can be freely downloaded from scnat. Short link to the German issue: https://scnat.ch/de/id/Yxw5h
Publication: Selecting species and populations for monitoring of genetic diversity
A new IUCN manual guides through the decision-making and evaluation processes involved in designing a genetic diversity monitoring programme and identifying the most appropriate species or populations. The guidance document is aimed at conservation practitioners and includes several case studies, including our pilot study for genetic monitoring in Switzerland. Link to the publication: https://doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.CH.2022.07.en
Successful sampling strategy
With the supplementary sampling of Melitaea diamina, the 2022 field season was successfully completed. The collected samples of the five species are distributed – according to their habitats – over the whole of Switzerland and all biogeographical regions. The sampling includes more than 1200 individuals from 158 populations.
The specifically developed sampling strategy (proportional stratified random sampling) has proven successful: the climatic niche, i.e. the range of temperature and precipitation suitable or expected for a species, is well covered for all species.
(c) Oliver Reutimann, ETH Zürich
In addition, areas of varying size, quality, and connectivity were selected using the random sampling strategy.
(c) images: Martin C. Fischer, ETH Zurich
Genetic Diversity Monitoring Workshop 2023 in Zurich
Thank you all for fantastic presentations and inspiring discussions!
More information about the workshop: https://gendiv.ethz.ch/en/genetic-diversity-monitoring-workshop-2023-in-zurich/
Publication: Bringing together approaches to reporting on within species genetic diversity
In the new article in the Journal of Applied Ecology, our pilot study for a monitoring of genetic diversity has been compared with and related to other approaches to reporting on within species genetic diversity. The publication shows the international importance of a monitoring of genetic diversity. The publication is available via this link in the Journal of Applied Ecology.