INDIVIDUAL BASED STATISTICAL METHODS FOR DNA-PROFILES WITH APPLICATION TO MANAGEMENT OF MARINE RESOURCES

Genetic methods are important tools for identifying population structure, and hence form an important part of modern schemes for management of marine resources. Traditional analysis techniques are typically based on a measure of differences in allele freq uencies between sub-areas, and may have low power to detect recent changes in population structure. We will develop individual based methods, which have the potential to provide information about contemporary population structure and animal abundance. The idea is to use forensic and statistical methods to infer relatedness between individuals based on their DNA-profiles. High precision DNA-profiles are currently becoming available for a large number of wildlife species and populations. The performance of individual based methods will be measured in a simulation framework, and the methods will also be applied to data on minke whales and wild salmon.