The theory and practice of molecular ecology draw on a number of subjects, particularly genetics, ecology and evolutionary biology. Although the foundations of molecular ecology are not particularly new, it did not emerge until the 1980s as the discipline that we now recognize. Since that time the growth of molecular ecology has been explosive, in part because molecular data are becoming increasingly accessible and also because it is, by its very nature, a collaborative discipline. Molecular ecology is now a broad area of research that embraces topics as varied as population genetics, conservation genetics, molecular evolution, behavioural ecology and biogeography, and has added much to our understanding of.
