Genetic diversity is an important conservation metric that is crucial to the proliferation of species, especially in a changing climate. This article summarizes the findings of a meta-analysis of conservation efforts for over 600 threatened species spanning 35 years. It focuses on how these efforts were correlated with change in genetic diversity and why that matters in today’s world. The article highlights the impressive success of a large part of these efforts. Of course, these are threatened species and about two thirds of them are still losing genetic diversity according to the article, but they did find ‘a large, positive increases in others, whether sustaining that diversity or, in some cases, even increasing it’ (Orf). This is exciting news because it suggests that conservation efforts have had successes in protecting genetic diversity, which as we learned in class, is key to enduring stochasticity and adapting to a new climate. Genetic diversity in a species means it will exhibit more adaptive capacity in the face of environmental pressures. This is because a diverse population has an ample variety of genes that can be expressed as different traits, essentially giving the species more chances to develop traits favorable to a different environment. As the article mentions, there are also bad things that can happen to a species with low genetic diversity. This ties back to what we learned about inbreeding depression. As a species loses genetic diversity, individuals are more likely to breed with others that have the same gene pairs as them, and offspring are more likely to display detrimental recessive traits that could greatly decrease their fitness, especially given climate pressures. I think this is great news for conservation biology. It shows that there is still a lot of work to be done, but it’s important to know that the steps we are taking are having an impact and this article demonstrates that they aren’t just preserving species short term, but preparing them for the challenges of climate change by maintaining their genetic diversity.