There is now mounting evidence that heritable variation in ecologically relevant traits can be generated through a suite of epigenetic mechanisms, even in the absence of genetic variation. Moreover, recent studies indicate that epigenetic variation in natural populations can be independent from genetic variation, and that in some cases environmentally induced epigenetic changes may be inherited...

DNA barcoding - taxon identification using a standardized DNA region - has received much attention recently, and is being further developed through an international initiative. We anticipate that DNA barcoding techniques will be increasingly used by ecologists. They will be able to not only identify a single species from a specimen or an organism's remains but also determine the species composi...