Wildlife Sciences

Molecular Wildlife Ecology

Within this thematic focus, we concentrate primarily on two areas:

1.) Population and landscape genetics – this involves understanding the influences of habitat fragmentation, human management, and environmental changes on the genetic diversity and genetic exchange of wildlife populations.

2.) Genetic approaches in wildlife management – this primarily involves estimating population sizes and structures based on genetic data, for example, by assessing the kinship of harvested individuals.

In both areas, we engage in empirical studies as well as the development, implementation, and evaluation of analytical methods.

Contact person: Niko Balkenhol

Current Research Projects

  • Historical and current landscape influences on the genetic variability of local deer species in Baden-Württemberg

  • Statewide genetic study of red deer populations in Lower Saxony: recording the status quo of genetic diversity, genetic effective population sizes, gene flow, and inbreeding

  • Investigation of adaptive genetic variation, inbreeding, and hybridization in red deer in North Rhine-Westphalia as a basis for cost-effective monitoring

    • Publications:

    Temporal analysis reveals loss of genetic diversity and increasing differentiation in South-west German red deer populations | Conservation Genetics

    Combining detection dogs and camera traps improves minimally invasive population monitoring for the cheetah, an elusive and rare large carnivore - Verschueren - 2025 - Ecological Solutions and Evidence - Wiley Online Library

    A simulation-based evaluation of methods for estimating census population size of terrestrial game species from genetically-identified parent-offspring pairs

    Do all roads lead to resistance? State road density is the main impediment to gene flow in a flagship species inhabiting a severely fragmented anthropogenic landscape

    Conservation genetics of the yellow-bellied toad (Bombina variegata): population structure, genetic diversity and landscape effects in an endangered amphibian | Conservation Genetics

    Landscape Genomics for Wildlife Research | SpringerLink

    Software



    Balkenhol, N.

    R Functions to calculate hierarchical genetic distances based on population assignments, as described in Balkenhol et al. (2014)

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