Molecular approaches, methods and techniques in animal ecology

Molecular ecology comprises a wide diversity of genetic-based methodological and technical approaches to address ecological and evolutionary questions. This course will focus on general concepts, current techniques and key aspects for the experimental design of molecular studies applied to animal ecology using bats as model species. Particularly, the course will go into detail about population genomics, DNA metabarcoding for diet studies and shotgun metagenomics applied to gut microbiota.

Objectives

This course aims to provide students with the necessary theoretical and technical ground for choosing appropriate approaches and for developing correct experimental designs when conceiving molecular studies of wildlife ecology.