Gwen is a PhD student at the University of Vermont studying ecological genomics. Her research focuses on how amphibians are able to adapt to disease and what that means under different environmental stressors. She's particularly excited about this research project because it deals with frog communities close to home and works with an invaluable community resource: museums. Aside from the interesting evolutionary questions her research works to answer, she has a lot of passion for how molecular methods can inform wildlife conservation.
Great question! One of my favorite things about genetics is how much information it can give us. High genetic diversity means that a population will have more ways to deal with new stressors (ie high temperatures, new disease, pollution), whereas a population with low genetic diversity essentiall...more