*3.3. Macrogenetics*

Computational science, international collaboration, and data accessibility are facilitating massive, integrative research across the biological sciences. Driven by the era of "big data" and increasingly interoperable datasets, new and emerging fields of research are making it possible to pursue "big questions" like never before. These expanding opportunities have led to the emergence of new fields of study and one of these, "macrogenetics" [199], has been facilitated by the growth of publicly available genetic and genomic datasets. The concept for this field is intended to echo that of "macroecology" and emphasizes the integration of large-scale datasets in genetics with other large, interoperable databases [200], such as the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF, [201]), WorldClim [202], DRYAD [203], the International Nucleotide Sequence Database Collaboration (INSDC [204]), and BOLD. DNA barcodes provide a vital source of information that can facilitate the emerging field of macrogenetics and indeed, the development of BOLD is credited as one of the key advances that underlies macrogenetics.

As a new and emerging field, macrogenetics is presented as the intersection of several biological foundations, united by large-scale genetic resources and including rich ecological data, collections science and museomics, biogeography, phylogeography, and evolutionary biology [200]. The promise of this new field is to synthesize big data across biological disciplines using genetic data to facilitate priorities for ecology, evolution, and conservation at global scale. Undoubtedly, the expanding role of DNA barcodes will play a central role in the development of macrogenetics. It is an exciting time to study ecology, evolution, and conservation.
