<![CDATA[HOBAN LAB - News]]>Sun, 13 Sep 2026 05:55:22 -0600Weebly<![CDATA[July, 2026]]>Mon, 03 Aug 2026 20:41:52 GMThttps://www.hobanlab.com/news/july-2026
Presentations
  • 'Tis conference season, and what a showing our lab had! So much so that we made a separate section of it.
    • Mikaely Evans, former REU and REEF participant in the Center for Tree Science, presented her work at the North American Forest Genetics Society meeting in Laval, Quebec in late June. Her talk was titled “Is hybridization an important consideration for ex situ conservation.”  Her work, with Emily Schumacher (former RA and Lab Manager), Ash Hamilton (current PhD student), Sean and Murphy Westwood, investigated the degree of hybridization in acorns collected from chinquapin oak trees at The Morton Arboretum. This study was important because botanic gardens regularly exchange seed collected from plants in their collections, and that seed is assumed to be “true” to the parent species. About 8% of the seeds were hybrids, however, from mating with three other oak species (white oak, bur oak, and dwarf chestnut oak). The work is published and free to read here. Mikaely’s work was supported by the US Botanic Garden and an IMLS National Leadership Grant.
    • Jesse Parker, incoming PhD student at the University of Chicago (woohoo!), also presented at the North American Forest Genetics Society, on work he did with Sean for his Masters degree. His talk was titled “Introgression and genetic variation at the trailing range margin of Quercus bicolor: evolutionary and conservation implications.” This study found hybrids between swamp white oak and other oak species were much more common at the species’ range edge. Hybrids were also identified in the Tennessee Tree Improvement Program breeding collection. This study allowed the identification of known swamp white oaks, and now the breeding collection has a separate planting of hybrid trees and non-hybrid trees, for use in future evaluation and in reforestation. The two papers can be read here and here.
    • A whole slew of Hoban Lab members presented at the North American Congress for Conservation and Restoration (NACCR) from July 12 – 16 in Milwaukee, which welcomed over 1,000 participants. This flagship conference of the Society for Conservation Biology and Society for Ecological Restoration brought together scientists, species’ recovery experts, policy makers, land managers, nonprofit leaders, and indigenous and community partners. The conference emphasized interdisciplinary and innovative approaches to conservation, investment in professional development, and translating science to action.
      • Ash Hamilton (PhD candidate): Speed talk, “Is clonality complicating conservation efforts in an endangered tree species?” which focused on using genetic data to improve threat assessments for the Baja Sur endemic oak, Quercus brandegeei.
      • Austin Koontz (Research consultant): Speed talk, “How well does ecogeographic variation predict genetic diversity? An exploration of commonly used ex situ conservation metrics” which focused on practical guidance for the “gap analysis” method used by botanic gardens for prioritization of efforts.
      • Catherine Dell’Olio (Rare Plant Research Aide): Presentation, “Associations of land management on the health and regeneration of threatened butternut” which focused on understanding healthy habitat conditions for the butternut tree.
      • Dana Barry (former Rare Plant Research Aide): Poster, “Biases in genetic diversity retention and seedling survival in a community based conservation program of an endangered tree species” which quantified the genetic diversity in nursery seedlings and outplanted trees, being used for reintroduction of this threatened Mexican oak, relative to genetic diversity in wild trees.
      • Emma Leavens (Tree Conservation Biology Program Manager: Presentation, “Restoring the threatened butternut tree (Juglans cinerea): species conservation through diverse partnerships” which focused on the range of partners for butternut recovery, and lessons learned by working with them.  Emma also filled in for Hank Helmers who was unable to be there to give his presentation “Assessing the recruitment and health of butternut, a culturally and ecologically important tree species” which focused on light and other conditions at an important site for butternut recovery in Dupage County.
      • Kylie Roth (Independent contractor): Presentation, “Trait-based identification of J. cinerea x ailantifolia (butternut x Japanese walnut) hybrids in herbarium collections.” which analyzed >500 herbarium vouchers to identify hybrids over the past 150 years across the geographic range of butternut.
Other News
  • A collaboration between our team and Adventure Scientists kicked off in June! The project was designed to help conserve the threatened butternut tree, a native tree impacted by a fungal disease for the past 60 years. This partnership is helping recruit volunteers from across multiple states to identify and measure the health of butternut trees, in state and national forests. Several dozen volunteers have already participated, recording the location of trees that could contribute genetic resistance or knowledge of healthy habitat conditions for this tree. You can read more and even participate, see here.
  • Ash attended the Emerging Scholars Research Summit at Elmhurst University, and served on a STEM graduate school Q&A panel to an audience of 50+ undergraduate students doing summer research in the Chicagoland area. Additionally, they gave a talk about their PhD research titled “The problem of clonality in plant conservation“ to an audience of 80+ undergraduate student researchers spanning STEM and humanities disciplines. 
]]><![CDATA[June, 2026]]>Mon, 06 Jul 2026 22:09:20 GMThttps://www.hobanlab.com/news/june-2026
Summary
  • The lab welcomed Jason Holliday, Professor of Forest Resources and Environmental Conservation at Virginia Tech, to give a Tree Talk at the Arboretum titled "Restoring the American Chestnut: Genomic Prediction for Disease Resistance and Climate Adaptation". 
  • Welcome to Annabelle Daniels, our new REU student! Annabelle will be working with Emma, Catherine and Sean on research helping to document and restore butternut.
  • Sean joined Adam Black, Director of Conservation at Bartlett Arboretum, and presented to a group of donors, board members, and visitors from Bartlett, about the “Conservation and genetics of red oaks of West Texas”, especially the threatened Quercus tardifolia.  About 40 people attended.
  • Sean, Kylie, and Emma attended the third Butternut Tree Restoration Initiative workshop in Burlington, Vermont. This summit welcomed about 50 in person and 100 online participants, from diverse federal, state and local agencies, volunteer groups, and non profit organizations relating to forestry and wildlife, habitat restoration, and species conservation.
    • Emma spoke about the work that the Tree Conservation Biology team has done on quantifying butternut tree health, seedling recruitment and habitat evaluation over the past two years, in Illinois and Vermont.
    • Kylie spoke about an evaluation of butternut hybridization (with a non native tree species) using herbarium specimens from the 1830s to present day. They also spoke about seed conservation, their upcoming citizen science project with Adventure Scientists and upcoming field work.
    • Lastly the workshop also featured a presentation by six youth from the Circle of Courage, an organization to engage youth in indigenous cultural practices and relationship with nature. The youth presented what they have learned about butternut identification, life cycle, and uses. 
  • Sean attended the fourth meeting of the World Biodiversity Forum held in Davos Switzerland. This meeting was established as an analogue to the World Economic Forum, but instead of economics and governance the topic is nature conservation, biodiversity monitoring, and science and their intersections with economics, society, art, and policy. Its purpose is to build networks, leadership, and actionable solutions that help halt biodiversity loss and support biodiversity goals such as the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework of the Convention on Biological Diversity. Around 800 people from 70 countries typically attend, covering biodiversity and environmental scientists, conservation practitioners, NGOs/ IGOs, government officials, indigenous representatives, sustainability leaders from business and finance and civil-society organizations.
    • Sean gave a talk about efficient monitoring and reporting of genetic diversity (see here), is co-convening a session on satellite data and biodiversity (see here), and is co-author on other talks (here, here, here, here).
  • Sean contributed to a chapter in the State of the World’s Plants and Fungi 2026, led by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.  This landmark publication reviews the status of plant and fungal biodiversity and provides updates on the tools used to study and conserve that biodiversity. Sean specifically helped write Chapter 8, “Safeguarding Nature with Accurate Data.” There were more than 400 contributing authors to this report, which received widespread news coverage (e.g. The Independent).
  • Catherine, Annabelle, and Emma spent several days in southern Wisconsin to survey a population of butternut trees with a colleague from the US Forest Service. The population was last surveyed in 2012 and this visit was a reassessment to understand how the population has changed since then. Meanwhile, Hank Helmers (Research Experience Extension Fellow) and Kylie Roth reassessed a population of butternut trees in Vermont and another in New York which were both last surveyed in 2010.
Publications
  • 2026. How much monitoring is needed to reliably track progress towards genetic diversity targets? Katherine Hébert, Laura Pollock, Sean Hoban. Biological Conservation. Open Access
    • This paper evaluates the reliability of a genetic diversity indicator developed by Sean Hoban, Tree Conservation Biologist, and currently used under the CBD Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF). The indicator is a tool for rapidly assessing whether species’ populations are large enough to maintain genetic diversity, with available data. Using simulations that incorporated realistic population trends, monitoring timeframes, and observation errors, the authors found that the indicator can accurately summarize changes in genetic diversity. They provide guidance on practical monitoring requirements: surveying populations every 2-4 years, sampling >50% of populations, and monitoring >100 species to obtain reliable estimates. The results support the conclusion that this indicator is a feasible, biologically meaningful, and technically robust tool for tracking progress toward global biodiversity goals. The study also highlights the need for more testing of biodiversity indicators to ensure accurate assessment of conservation outcomes.
  • 2026. Monitoring genetic diversity in Sweden with new indicators for the CBD Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework. Viktoria Köppä, Henrik Thurfjell, Jessica da Silva, Sean Hoban, Alicia Mastretta-Yanes, Linda Laikre. Technical Report 7219. Swedish Environmental Protection Agency.
    • In this report proxy-based indicators of genetic diversity are calculated for a large number of species in Sweden, primarily using data from the red-listing process and species action plans. The results highlight a general need to increase connectivity and population sizes. For example, 22% of the populations were found to be too small to maintain long term genetic variation. The authors suggest modifications to the species assessments for action plans and red listing to include genetic diversity indicators in the future. This would benefit both processes and provide new insights on species conservation status.
]]><![CDATA[May, 2026]]>Fri, 12 Jun 2026 18:09:01 GMThttps://www.hobanlab.com/news/may-2026
Summary
  • Our lab is embarking on an ambitious and creative citizen science project this summer! We're partnering with the organization Adventure Scientists to gather data and samples to help conserve butternut. More than 90% of trees have died due to an infectious canker, but some butternut trees still survive, in varying states of health, with some even healing over the canker wounds and producing healthy seedlings. Adventure Scientists will recruit and train dozens of volunteers across the United States to locate butternut trees, who will assess tree health and habitat characteristics. This data will be used along with other data to understand the genetics and ecology of why some butternut trees can survive this disease, and how to go about seed planting, habitat management, and tree breeding to restore this species. (You can participate during your summer vacation! Join us at https://www.adventurescientists.org/restoring-butternut-trees.html). 
  • Sean gave a presentation at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville titled “Meeting the needs of conservation in practice, with DNA data.” There were more than 50 students and professors in attendance. He also spoke about career paths and working with policy with about 20 undergraduate students. While in Knoxville, Sean also toured the Tennessee Tree Improvement Program, a 65 year old tree breeding and seed sourcing program focusing on locally adapted seed of trees used in reforestation, as well as trees of conservation concern (especially oaks), and he met with Dr. Meg Staton who leads the TreeSnap app and various projects on ash, chestnut, and butternut disease resistance.
  • From May 6-9, Catherine and Emma joined Valerie Lenis (Research Aide, Rare Plants), Kate Good (Global Tree Conservation Manager, Research Program), and Spencer Campbell (Senior Manager of Natural Areas) at the Center for Plant Conservation’s National Meeting at Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center in Austin Texas. Catherine presented the poster Impacts of Land Management on Light Availability and Suitable Habitat for Juglans cinerea, and Emma presented on Gene Conservation Efforts for the Threatened Butternut Tree. There were ~150 plant conservation professionals in attendance.
  • Selu joined Nathan Maren (Woody Plant Breeder and Genomics Specialist) and Alan Whittemore (Herbarium and Systematics Research Affiliate) at the National Arboretum to collect American elm (Ulmus americana) cuttings from its research plots and meet with National Arboretum staff. These elm trees represent a unique resource because they were sampled by Alan from throughout a large proportion of the elm’s native range. They will be propagated for future greenhouse or field experiments to understand variability in phenology, physiology, ploidy, or Dutch elm disease resistance within the species.
]]><![CDATA[April, 2026]]>Tue, 05 May 2026 20:31:43 GMThttps://www.hobanlab.com/news/april-2026Summary
  • Sean gave a presentation at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville titled “Meeting the needs of conservation in practice, with DNA data.” There were more than 50 students and professors in attendance. He also spoke about career paths and working with policy with about 20 undergraduate students. While in Knoxville, Sean also toured the Tennessee Tree Improvement Program, a 65 year old tree breeding and seed sourcing program focusing on locally adapted seed of trees used in reforestation, as well as trees of conservation concern (especially oaks), and he met with Dr. Meg Staton who leads the TreeSnap app and various projects on ash, chestnut, and butternut disease resistance.
Publications
  • 2026. Ne Does Not Provide Sufficient Information on Allelic Variation: Suggestions to Fill the Gap. Sean M Hoban, Brenna R Forester, Roberta Gargiulo, Austin C Koontz, Alicia Mastretta‐Yanes, Joachim Mergeay, Ivan Paz‐Vinas, Coalition for Conservation Genetics, Linda Laikre. Evolutionary Applications. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/eva.70219
    • Summary: Conservation needs simple, practical metrics for rapid assessment, and effective population size (Ne) has been proposed as one such tool to assess genetic vulnerability. This paper reflects on some solutions to the problem of relying on only one metric. We argue that the Ne 500 indicator should be paired with additional measures to give a more complete picture, such as using census population declines, assessment of population structure, and simulations.
    • Relevance: This paper supports an ongoing project funded by the Walder Foundation, to assess genetic health of 200 tree species of North America.
]]><![CDATA[February and March, 2026]]>Mon, 06 Apr 2026 19:14:26 GMThttps://www.hobanlab.com/news/february-and-march-2026
Picture
Summary
  • From March 2 to 6, Sean attended a research symposium held at the Lithuanian Institute of Forestry, focused on the genetic indicator approach. The workshop was a part of the GENOA project, a four year European funded networking project that will advance new tools and training events for genetic diversity conservation.
  • On March 11, Emma gave a presentation on our butternut tree (a native, threatened tree species impacted by a fungal disease) research, stewardship, and gene conservation efforts for the Forest Preserve District of Cook County’s Department of Resource Management. There were ~65 people in attendance including regional ecologists, arborists, and educators.
  • At the end of March, Catherine (current RaMP student) is leading a ~12 day expedition to collect community and ecological data from an increasingly well studied population of the threatened butternut tree, in Vermont.  She will be recording the size and species of trees surrounding butternut trees to assess how the associated vegetation community could compete with or facilitate butternut trees, impacting their health.  She will also interview land managers about their past habitat management practices, and will use this to test how management impacts regeneration of seedlings, which is rare for this species.  Catherine will be working with a private landowner, a local park, and several USFS colleagues.
  • Selu recently completed a 10 week lab rotation at The Morton Arboretum and Chicago Botanic Garden (with colleagues Jeremie Fant and Marne Quigg). She learned about DNA extractions, DNA data processing, and past work on elms at the two institutions. She also gathered information on available germplasm that can be used in a future greenhouse or field experiment to understand variability in phenology, physiology, or Dutch elm disease resistance within the species.
Publications
  • Schumacher, E.K., Evans, M., Hamilton, A., Westwood, M. and Hoban, S., 2026. Is hybridization an important consideration for ex situ conservation? A case study using parentage in white oaks at The Morton Arboretum. Free Open access https://doi.org/10.1086/739819
    • Plants held in botanic gardens have the opportunity to mate with closely related species, resulting in hybrid offspring, and yet hybridization in these collections has rarely been scientifically assessed. Accounting for hybridization is important because gardens frequently share seeds with each other. Hybrid offspring may exhibit traits different from the parental species, impacting their survival in different environmental conditions. In this study, including work by Ash, Mikaely, and Emily Schumacher (a lab alumnus), we tested for hybridization in offspring of Quercus muehlenbergii at The Morton Arboretum using DNA analysis. About 8% of offspring were hybrids; very similar to a study by Andrew Hipp and colleagues a few years ago in other species in the oak collection. About half of pollination distances exceeded 100 m, and one pollination distance exceeded 600 m. We also found a very high degree of mating between siblings (thus, inbreeding), which also has implications for the use of seeds in botanic gardens. We conclude that a nonnegligible proportion of seeds produced in botanic gardens may be hybrids. Our findings also show that botanic gardens are useful laboratories to study mechanisms underlying species’ boundaries
  • Schmidt, C., Hoban, S., Leigh, D.M., Jetz, W. and Garroway, C.J., 2026. Variability, Drivers, and Utility of Genetic Diversity‐Area Relationships in Terrestrial Vertebrates. Ecology Letters, 29(1), p.e70306. https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.70306
    • This paper addresses a conservation policy need, which is to understand losses in genetic diversity (an element of biodiversity) with simple and quick metrics.  One proposed metric, developed in 2022 by Exposito et al. in the context of the Convention on Biological Diversity, is based on species range area that has been lost, e.g. due to habitat loss.  This paper tests the degree to which genetic changes can be predicted from habitat changes, and whether the rate of loss can be predicted by species’ traits.  The paper shows that area-based prediction of genetic diversity is not very accurate, meaning that other metrics need to be developed for quantifying genetic diversity conservation.
  • Hoban, Sean M., Brenna R. Forester, Roberta Gargiulo, Austin C. Koontz, Alicia Mastretta-Yanes, Joachim Mergeay, Ivan Paz-Vinas, Coalition for Conservation Genetics, and Linda Laikre. 2026. “Ne Does Not Provide Sufficient Information on Allelic Variation: Suggestions to Fill the Gap.” Evolutionary Applications 19 (3): e70219. https://doi.org/10.1111/eva.70219.
    • This paper is a response to Allendorf et al. 2024, which outlines the limitations for the effective population size metric (Ne) in predicting allelic diversity. It considers how genetic indicator assessments can better account for allelic diversity, and provides practical guidance for future assessments.

]]><![CDATA[January 2026]]>Tue, 03 Feb 2026 19:32:04 GMThttps://www.hobanlab.com/news/january-2026
News
  • In December, Ash and Dana completed a highly successful four week expedition to Baja California Sur! During their field trip, they collected acorns for the locally led community conservation program of the Endangered arroyo oak, visited seedlings that had been planted on local properties in previous years to collect health and survival data, sampled leaves for DNA analysis, collected precise geolocation data to support better mapping of the oaks occurrences, learned from local landowners about oak phenology, and supported the Community Festival. They found new oak trees, witnessed the impact of last year’s drought (fewer acorns produced), and continued to help strengthen this long-term, exceptional research, outreach, tree planting, and conservation project. 
    • They also helped with the 4th Community Festival for the Conservation of the Encino Arroyero in Los Cabos. The Center for Northwestern Biological Research (CIBNOR) and The Morton Arboretum organized the festival’s several educational booths, environmental workshops, student activities, and two community contests focused on drawing and traditional acorn-based gastronomy.
  • Sean Hoban led a group of collaborators from the IUCN Conservation Genetics Specialist Group in providing peer review of a new draft of the IUCN Red List Actions Classification Scheme. The Actions Scheme is a way of recording what actions are being taken to help species’ recovery. A standardized scheme helps understand what actions are being taken globally, for what kinds of species, and how this changes through time and with species’ threat level (see for example here).
  • Catherine is planning a field expedition to Vermont to further evaluate forest composition impacts on butternut tree health, and to better document forest management activities. This is an exciting research endeavor to understand how some trees may facilitate butternut seedling recruitment and healthy adult trees. This research effort is in collaboration with local landowners, forest health professionals, and USFS collaborators. Thanks to several CTS PIs who have helped provide advice and equipment, and to Valerie Lenis (GTCP Research Aide, Rare Plants) for her assistance practicing the protocol!
Publications
  • 2025. D O’Brien, E Bader, J Hall, S Hoban, G Segelbacher, ST Vilaça, DM Leigh.  Genetic diversity is key to a nature-positive future. People and Nature. Open Access link HERE.
    • ‘Nature positive’ is a biodiversity restoration concept focused on halting and reversing biodiversity loss, aiming towards a positive future, and also focused on integrating nature throughout all aspects of government and business decision making.  This article explains how genetic diversity has traditionally been neglected in this framework.  Several examples are used to demonstrate that genetic diversity is vital to include in biodiversity assessments, restoration plans, and business/ government planning, including European ash, and the tuatara of New Zealand.  Lastly, the article talks about measuring genetic diversity for quantifying nature positive trajectories.
  • 2025. JB Parker, S Hoban, L Thompson, SE Schlarbaum. Evaluating the Central–Marginal Hypothesis: Introgression and Genetic Variation at the Trailing Edge of Quercus bicolor
    • The central–marginal hypothesis predicts small populations and reduced genetic diversity at a species’ range edge, which could impact populations’ ability to adapt to climate change.  This investigation examined genetic variation in swamp white oak, an oak which can live to 350+ years old.  We found that southern range edge populations of this species hybridize extensively with other oak species (especially overcup oak), while no hybridization occurred in central populations.  We also found that genetic diversity is not reduced in the range edge populations, so we conclude that hybridization may be helping alleviate low genetic diversity, helping those populations persist.  The findings of this study were used to guide the sampling and planting of a seed production orchard as part of the Tennessee Tree Improvement Program which helps produce and plant “high quality, locally adapted, and genetically improved seedlings by Tennessee landowners.” 
  • “Renewed hope for the conservation of butternut trees” by Sean and Emma, published in the Illinois Forestry Association Fall newsletter.
    • We provide an overview of our project and observations from our first full season of fieldwork. The audience is forest landowners and managers in Illinois. We introduce foresters to the plight of the threatened butternut tree, explain our findings about the tree’s preferred habitat, and explain how some trees are thriving in spite of disease. We then summarize preliminary insight into management that can help foster healthy trees and seedlings.
  • Griffith and colleagues (including Sean), 2026. BON in a Box: An Open and Collaborative Platform for Biodiversity Monitoring, Indicator Calculation, and Reporting. Open Access. BioScience. https://doi.org/10.1093/biosci/biaf189
    • This publication describes an effort by the GEO BON organization to create easy to use toolboxes for governments, NGOs, and others to analyze and make sense of biodiversity data. The article also describes a toolbox for the genetic diversity indicators, a concept and methodology originally developed by Sean Hoban and colleagues. This article envisions the next steps for this open and easy to use platform, as a part of global biodiversity monitoring and management, including for the Convention on Biological Diversity. This work was partly a product of Sean’s leadership in the GEO BON organization over the past seven years.
]]><![CDATA[November, 2025]]>Tue, 02 Dec 2025 23:57:30 GMThttps://www.hobanlab.com/news/november-2025
Overall
  • We hosted Kylie Roth, who has been leading our butternut fieldwork in Vermont, ffor a couple of weeks! Kylie has been documenting the health of trees impacted by the butternut canker disease, resurveying populations previously surveyed over 10 years ago, and identifying locations with healthy seedlings. She visited the lab in Chicago for 2 weeks to help assess some populations of butternut in the Chicago area and to initiate her work on an upcoming project assessing herbaria specimens of butternut trees and close relatives. She will be scoring specimens for characteristics that indicate hybridization with Japanese walnuts in order to better understand the prevalence of hybridization across the species range.
  • Catherine, Kylie, and Emma scouted for and completed health assessments of butternuts in the snow on November 10. They located 20 individuals in the time they were out and found that most were in very good health despite having evidence of exposure to the butternut canker, a fungal pathogen responsible for the steep decline of this species in the past 60 years. They’re confident there are more trees in this population yet to be found and were encouraged to see so many doing well.
  • Catherine and Kylie also mounted several Juglans specimens for the herbarium. These specimens were collected from arboretum grounds as well as sent from other botanic gardens and arboreta around the U.S. These will contribute to the Juglans collection in the herbarium but also be used for a study of the morphology of butternuts, butternut hybrids, and related species to better inform key characteristics for identifying non-hybrid butternuts in the field. Kylie will be leading on this study this winter.
Publications
  • J M da Silva, L D Bertola, J A DeWoody, T Steeves, P Sunnucks, S T Vilaça, S Hoban. Conserving Genetic and Genomic Diversity in Accordance with the Global Biodiversity Framework. Annual Review of Animal Biosciences. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-animal-030424-070756 (PDF of galley proofs available HERE)
    • Summary: The 2022 Kunming–Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework outlines a road map guiding humanity’s relationship with nature. Genetic diversity, which underlies adaptation and fitness of species and populations, is a core part of the KMGBF. This landmark publication aims to be a foundational resource to help researchers, practitioners, and other interested parties understand the KMGBF and achieve its commitments. We address (a) the KMGBF’s terminology and scope, (b) the intersection of KMGBF targets with genetic diversity, (c) genetic monitoring for tracking progress, (d) decision frameworks to guide genetic conservation actions, and (e) emerging frontiers. A better understanding of the policy context is vital for researchers to tailor their work to help meet commitments to conserving biodiversity.
  • A Koontz, G Salas, S Hoban. Genetic marker type impacts ex situ conservation minimum sample size estimates and their variance. Conservation Genetics. Open Access. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10592-025-01730-1  
    • Summary: This study is the product of several IMLS grants and an NSF RAMP project, and builds on advances our lab has made over the past ten years providing guidance to botanic gardens to more efficiently conserve genetic diversity. It uses simulations to determine minimum sample size estimates (MSSEs)–the number of samples needed in a metacollection to represent a proportion of the species’ wild populations’ genetic diversity–and how MSSEs shift when different genetic markers are used. We show that recommended sample sizes are higher when aiming to conserve genome-wide diversity, and that uncertainty around MSSEs is large, but can be reduced with greater genetic data. We also emphasize that caution is needed when the technique of resampling of empirical datasets is used to estimate MSSEs, if datasets are small relative to a species’ total population size.  Overall, we recommend that guidance to practitioners should account for uncertainty and the genetic marker being used.
  • P Galbusera, LD Bertola, AD Ball, E von Wettberg, MW Bruford, P Helsen, S Hoban, E Fienieg, MC Quinzin, IM Russo, G Segelbacher, N Ting, LP Waits, AV Stronen, A Kopatz. 2026. Hybrids along a natural-anthropogenic gradient: improving policy and management across all levels of biodiversity. Conservation Letters. https://conbio.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/conl.13158 Open Access
    • Hybridization between species is a central topic in evolution and conservation. Genetic and genomic tools now give conservationists greater ability than ever to assess hybridization in wild populations. This article discusses historic views of hybridization as a threat to biodiversity, the context of global conservation policy, increasing evidence of natural hybridization events, and benefits of hybrids in some conservation situations.  The article presents a framework for making decisions about hybrids based on scientific evidence of their impact on the environment, assessing both risks and benefits, and carefully considering thresholds for implementing interventions.
      • This article resulted from the efforts of the IUCN Conservation Specialist Group and the GBIKE conservation networks.
]]><![CDATA[October, 2025]]>Tue, 04 Nov 2025 18:19:01 GMThttps://www.hobanlab.com/news/october-2025Overall
  • Sean gave four presentations at the IUCN World Conservation Congress in Abu Dhabi!
    • “Conservation Genetics and Genomics for Policy and Management, with the Genomics of Brazilian Biodiversity Project”
    • “Hot off the Press: IUCN Guidance document on Biobanking”
    • “Hot Off the Press: IUCN Guidance document on Selecting Species and Populations for Genetic Monitoring”
    • “What is the road towards a standardized, accessible, inclusive assessment approach for conserving genetic diversity”
Publications
  • IUCN Guidance Documents. IUCN Species Survival Commission biobanking guidelines for conservation purposes. 2025. Hvilsom, C., Brown, A., Bruford, M., Berner, J., Boettcher, P., Bragg, J., Calatayud, N., Costa, M., Daly, J., Dulloo, E., Fant, J., Goodale, U.M., Habul, A., Hamer, M., Heineman, K., Hoban, S., Hobbs, R., MacDonald, A., Masembe, C., Motato-Vásquez, V., Mullins, P., O´Brien, J., Russo, I-R., Ryder, O., Sole, C., Vergeer, P., Wettberg, E.B.v., Wisely, S. , and Segelbacher, G. https://portals.iucn.org/library/sites/library/files/documents/2025-030-En.pdf
    • This document is an IUCN Guidance Document, a resource to assist in fundamental decisions for establishing, managing and implementing biobanks, whose uses include monitoring biodiversity including assessing genetic diversity, assisted reproductive technology and cloning, and scientific research.
]]><![CDATA[August & September, 2025]]>Mon, 06 Oct 2025 17:32:14 GMThttps://www.hobanlab.com/news/august-september-2025
Overall
  • In early September, Sean and Austin along with several members of Science and Conservation (Murphy Westwood, Silvia Alvarez Clare, Kate Good, and Amy Byrne) hosted collaborators on an IMLS National Leadership grant project (described here) about the use of genetic diversity and concepts in development and curation of botanical garden collections/metacollections. Visitors represented botanical research, horticulture, curation, crop diversity, and geospatial science, from Huntsville BG, Davis Arboretum, Chicago BG, Colorado State University, Huntington BG and Atlanta BG. The team reflected on grant progress, determined outreach and training opportunities for sharing the results of the studies, and identified exciting new avenues for future research and collaborations.
  • While in town, Austin and Sean also got to catch up and ride bikes around the Arboretum and the surrounding areas, and Sean pointed out some butternut individuals! The lab also had a retreat where we talked about ongoing projects, future goals in the lab, and how we can improve. 
  • Welcome to 2 new members of the lab!
    • Selu Adams has joined as a PhD student at the University of Chicago! Selu has prior experience working at the Arboretum in Nate Maren's group and also with the Forest Service. Selu is "interested in using genetic, ecological, and physiological approaches to understand how novel pests and pathogens affect tree species and their ability to adapt to other challenges, such as climate change".
    • Catherine Dell’Olio has joined as this year's RaMP student! Catherine will be working with Emma and Sean on their butternut research.
  • From September 2-12, Emma and Catherine completed a major field expedition in Vermont relating to the threatened butternut tree, Juglans cinerea. They collected data on tree health and environmental conditions in order to better understand how adult trees and seedlings persist under the threat of a fungal disease called butternut canker. They measured disease severity, tree vigor, light conditions, competition, and other aspects of the largest known butternut tree population. In collaboration with key partners, they also hosted indigenous youth to collect butternut seeds and learn to identify some of the other tree species in the forest.
Presentations
  • Sean gave an invited virtual presentation at a Training School for the EU COST Action GENOA (Genetic Nature Observation and Action), held at the beginning of September in Stockholm. There were about 25 participants who attended a presentation on the practical considerations of monitoring genetic diversity using genetic indicators (frequency of monitoring, observer error, and proportion of populations and species to monitor).
]]><![CDATA[July 2025]]>Tue, 05 Aug 2025 17:30:28 GMThttps://www.hobanlab.com/news/july-2025
Overall
  • Emma, Hank and Sean completed one of their major field events of the season, collecting data on butternut trees in Vermont. During the trip they also participated in a research summit with colleagues across several states and from Canada. Participants included several US Forest Service personnel, a retired professor, a private landowner, and members of the Forest Gene Conservation Association of Ontario. We collected detailed health and habitat data on 57 trees at two properties, discussed future data collection and analysis, found and protected several seedlings, and discussed the ecology and management of forests to facilitate butternut health.
    • Emma, Hank and Sean also participated in an outreach event associated with their butternut work. They helped facilitate a forest walk for youth of the Abenaki tribe of Vermont. The forest walk introduced the youth to butternuts, as well as the disease which is harming the tree, and some of the differences in forest habitats. Twenty youth participated, led by the tribal chief.
Presentations
  • Austin virtually presented to about 150 attendees of the Texas Plant Conservation Conference at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center in Austin, Texas. He shared his research examining the genetics of Quercus tardifolia, a rare red oak in southwest Texas which was thought to have gone extinct until field surveys in 2022 located an individual tree in Big Bend National Park. 
  • Much of the team presented at Botany in Palm Springs! We met up with collaborators from other gardens and institutions, hiked in the San Jacinto Mountains, and presented our research! Presentations listed below.
    • Rebecca Wanger, former REU and REEF: “Exploring the demographic, spatial, and environmental traits of the climate relict Arroyo Oak to investigate water dependency”
    • Ash Hamilton, Research Affiliate and PhD student, “Defying expectations: resolving the Forest Fragmentation Paradox… while navigating physical disability”
    • Dana Barry, Research Aide in Rare Plants and RAMP participant, “Evaluating success of a community-driven conservation program for an endangered Mexican oak”
    • Austin Koontz, Research Affiliate, “Population genetics of the Southwest Texas red oaks: characterizing North America’s most elusive oak”
    • Jesse Parker, Masters degree candidate, “Genetic Diversity, Structure, and Introgression in Quercus bicolor: Comparing the Range Core and Southern Margin”
    • Antonio Castilla, Assistant Professor, Oklahoma State University: “Tracing the Past, Projecting the Future: An Integrated Approach to Species Distribution Modeling.” Two students in Antonio’s lab also presented posters on Quercus havardii, building off of prior CTS Fellow work.
]]>