The incorporation of molecular methods in ecological research has added an exciting new dimension to conventional studies, and opened windows into previously intractable areas of research, at the interface between ecology and genetics. Using these new methods it has now become routine to use genetic markers to study ecological phenomena, from molecular sexing of individuals and parentage of offspring, through to population structure of species and phylogenetic relationships of taxa. These methods have stimulated an explosion of empirical and analytical developments in molecular ecology, which...