Environmental resource management

Ecosystem

Biotechnology

Genomics

Population

Biology

Gene

Biodiversity

Machine learning

Logistic regression

Engineering

Genome

Odds

Paleontology

Systems engineering

Ecology

Data science

Population genomics

Context (archaeology)

Computer science

Task (project management)

Environmental science

Genetics

Medicine

Environmental health

Nature Reviews Genetics

Billions of hectares of natural ecosystems have been degraded through human actions. The global community has agreed on targets to halt and reverse these declines, and the restoration sector faces the important but arduous task of implementing programmes to meet these objectives. Existing and emerging genomics tools offer the potential to improve the odds of achieving these targets. These tools include population genomics that can improve seed sourcing, meta-omics that can improve assessment and monitoring of restoration outcomes, and genome editing that can generate novel genotypes for restoring challenging environments. We identify barriers to adopting these tools in a restoration context and emphasize that regulatory and ethical frameworks are required to guide their use. Earth’s landscapes and biodiversity are being eroded at an unprecedented pace and scale. This Review argues that genomics tools need to be adopted in restoration ecology to help reverse the environmental destruction caused by humans.

The potential of genomics for restoring ecosystems and biodiversity