Ecological genetics is the study of genetics in the context of the interactions among organisms and between the organisms and their environment. While molecular genetics studies the structure and function of genes at a molecular level, ecological genetics (and the related field of population genetics) studies phenotypic evolution in natural populations of organisms. Research in this field is of traits of ecological significance — that is, traits related to fitness, which affect an organism's survival and reproduction (e.g., flowering time, drought tolerance, sex ratio).
Studies are often done on insects and other organisms that have short generation times, and thus evolve at fast rates.
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