Genetic Tagging in the Anthropocene: Scaling Ecology from Alleles to Ecosystems

This work reviews, and applies, genetic tags for understanding the most pressing questions in conservation and ecology. Genetic tagging is used to identify and track individual animals using their unique DNA signature, which can be gathered noninvasively. Ecologists are facing growing pressure to quantify the size, distribution, and trajectory of wild populations in a cost‐effective and socially acceptable manner. Genetic tagging is ideally suited to meet this demand. We provide example analyses using a genetic tagging dataset of grizzly bears. The genetic tagging toolbox is a powerful and overlooked ensemble that ecologists and conservation biologists can leverage to generate evidence and meet the challenges of the Anthropocene. These photographs illustrate the article “Genetic tagging in the Anthropocene: scaling ecology from alleles to ecosystems” by Clayton T. Lamb, Adam T. Ford, Michael F. Proctor, J. Andrew Royle, Garth Mowat, and Stan Boutin published in Ecological Applications. https://doi.org/10.1002/eap.187