Molecular ecology is experiencing explosive growth. Many books have been published on this topic, but mainly concerning theoretical aspects, and little is available on techniques. This book seeks to fill that gap.
The authors are both editors of leading journals in the field of molecular ecology, and have realized that many expensive studies do not fulfil the current standards in terms of general strategy, data production, and/or data analysis. The reason is probably that many laboratory working in field or theoretical ecology started to use molecular genetic without enough expertise, and probably were mislead by the fact that the production of DNA data (sequences, microsatellites, etc.) is relatively easy.
The purpose of this book is to provide guidance and information on the design of a robust experimental protocol for any molecular analysis with a correspondingly high quality of data production, and to offer tools and approaches that will assist accurate analysis and interpretation.