Lucia Caroli1, Tobias Uller1 (supervisor) 1Department of Biology, Lund University Intensive forestry, agriculture and urbanization reduce the habitat for many species. As populations become small and isolated, genetic diversity is lost and inbreeding and mutation load can make them succumb to an ‘extinction vortex’. Traditional monitoring is unable to establish if populations are about to enter an extinction vortex, if they are in the middle of one, or if they have escaped by purging deleterious genetic variants. Without genetic data, identifying landscape features that can reverse the situation by increasing functional connectivity is also extremely challenging. Our aim is to resolve these issues and identify management strategies that can reverse the decline of the threatened sand lizard in Sweden. We will use whole-genome sequences of lizards from more than 40 Swedish populations to establish the consequences of habitat fragmentation and identify features of the landscape that can limit or reverse negative trends by promoting functional connectivity between locations. Furthermore, by integrating the dataset with 10 central European population, we will quantify the impact of declining population size and connectivity on inbreeding and mutation load and demonstrate to what extent small populations can persist and regain viability by purging deleterious genetic variants. Based on these findings and in close collaboration with stakeholders, we will provide implementable recommendations for an effective landscape strategy to the management of sand lizards and other threatened species.