Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of contributors
- 1 Phylogeny and conservation
- Part 1 Units and currencies
- 2 Molecular phylogenetics for conservation biology
- 3 Species: demarcation and diversity
- 4 Phylogenetic units and currencies above and below the species level
- 5 Integrating phylogenetic diversity in the selection of priority areas for conservation: does it make a difference?
- 6 Evolutionary heritage as a metric for conservation
- Part 2 Inferring evolutionary processes
- Part 3 Effects of human processes
- Part 4 Prognosis
- Index
- References
5 - Integrating phylogenetic diversity in the selection of priority areas for conservation: does it make a difference?
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 04 December 2009
Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of contributors
- 1 Phylogeny and conservation
- Part 1 Units and currencies
- 2 Molecular phylogenetics for conservation biology
- 3 Species: demarcation and diversity
- 4 Phylogenetic units and currencies above and below the species level
- 5 Integrating phylogenetic diversity in the selection of priority areas for conservation: does it make a difference?
- 6 Evolutionary heritage as a metric for conservation
- Part 2 Inferring evolutionary processes
- Part 3 Effects of human processes
- Part 4 Prognosis
- Index
- References
Summary
INTRODUCTION
Species are the most frequently used currency of biological diversity (see, for example, Gaston 1996). However, they are not equivalent in terms of the amount of unique evolutionary history they represent, and that would be irreversibly lost if they became extinct (May 1990; Vane-Wright et al. 1991). Classical examples of species that embody disproportionate amounts of evolutionary history are the tuataras (Sphenodon punctatus and S. guntheri), iguana-like reptiles that are the sole survivors of the order Sphenodontia, and the welwitschia (Welwitschia mirabilis), a gymnosperm that is the single representative of the order Welwitschiales (Daugherty et al. 1990; von Willert 1994).
Phylogenetic diversity (PD) is a biodiversity measure that takes account of phylogenetic relationships (and hence evolutionary history) between taxa (Faith 1992, 1994a; Polasky et al. 2001; Rodrigues & Gaston 2002a). The phylogenetic diversity contained in the species that exist today is part of the raw material on which future evolutionary processes will operate. Keeping these pieces is fundamental to leaving the options open for future evolution (Moritz 2002). However, previous studies indicate that PD is being lost at a faster rate than expected from species loss (Purvis et al. 2000; von Euler 2001), and that PD is not evenly distributed throughout the planet (Sechrest et al. 2002), suggesting that conservation action may need to target evolutionary history directly.
For a given clade, the extent to which phylogenetic diversity is more or less evenly spread across species is determined by the structure of the phylogenetic tree.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Phylogeny and Conservation , pp. 101 - 119Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2005
References
, , , & 1997 Finding all optimal solutions to the reserve site selection problem: formulation and computational analysis. Environmental and Ecological Statistics 4, 153–65CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, & 1996 Reserve selection as a maximal covering location problem. Biological Conservation 76, 105–12CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, , & 2002 Improving U.S. Endangered Species Act recovery plans: key findings and recommendations of the SCB recovery plan project. Conservation Biology 16, 1510–19CrossRefGoogle Scholar
1997 Taxonomy and conservation: chicken and egg. Bulletin of the British Ornithologists' Club 117, 122–36Google Scholar
, , et al. 1992 Independent origins of New Zealand moas and kiwis. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA 89, 8741–4CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
1992 Genetic diversity and the agony of choice. Biological Conservation 61, 11–15CrossRefGoogle Scholar
1997 Preserving the information content of species: genetic diversity, phylogeny, and conservation worth. Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics 28, 243–68CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, , & 1990 Neglected taxonomy and continuing extinctions of tuatara (Sphenodon). Nature 347, 177–9CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, & (eds) 1992 Handbook of the Birds of the World, Volume 1, Ostrich to Ducks. Barcelona: Lynx EditionsGoogle Scholar
, & 1996 Handbook of the Birds of the World, Volume 3, Hoatzin to Auks. Barcelona: Lynx EditionsGoogle Scholar
1992 Conservation evaluation and phylogenetic diversity. Biological Conservation 61, 1–10CrossRefGoogle Scholar
1994a Genetic diversity and taxonomic priorities for conservation. Biological Conservation 68, 69–74CrossRefGoogle Scholar
1994b Phylogenetic pattern and the quantification of organismal biodiversity. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London B345, 45–58CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Faith, D. P. & Walker, P. A. 1996 DIVERSITY – PD. In BioRap, Rapid Assessment of Biodiversity, Volume 3, Tools for Assessing Biodiversity Priority Areas (ed. & ), pp. 35–50. Camberra, Australia: Centre for Resource and Environmental Studies (CSIRO)
, & 2004. Integrating phylogenetic diversity, complementarity and endemism for conservation assessment. Conservation Biology 18, 255–61CrossRefGoogle Scholar
2002 Mapping spatial pattern in biodiversity for regional conservation planning: where to from here?Systematic Biology 51, 331–63CrossRefGoogle Scholar
& 1997 An evaluation of the effectiveness of environmental surrogates and modelling techniques in predicting the distribution of biological diversity. Armidale, Australia: Environment AustraliaGoogle Scholar
, , & 2002 Extended statistical approaches to modelling spatial pattern in biodiversity in northeast New South Wales. I. Species-level modelling. Biodiversity and Conservation 11, 2275–307CrossRefGoogle Scholar
2000 The relevance of systematics in choosing priority areas for global conservation. Environmental Conservation 27, 67–75CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gaston, K. J. 1996 Species richness: measure and measurement. In Biodiversity: a Biology of Numbers and Difference (ed. ), pp. 77–113. Oxford: Blackwell Science
& 2000 Phylogenetically patterned speciation rates and extinction risks change the loss of evolutionary history during extinctions. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B267, 613–20CrossRefGoogle Scholar
& 2000 Long-term growth patterns of Welwitschia mirabilis, a long-lived plant of the Namib Desert (including a bibliography). Plant Ecology 150, 7–26CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, & 2000 National-scale conservation assessments at an appropriate resolution. Diversity and Distributions 6, 195–204CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, & 1997 Planning conservation areas in Uganda's natural forests. Oryx 31, 253–64CrossRefGoogle Scholar
LINDO Systems, Inc. 1996 Student/PC – Release 6.00. Chicago
, , & 1990 Setting priorities for the conservation of fish and wildlife species in Florida. Wildlife Monographs, 1–57Google Scholar
2002 Strategies to protect biological diversity and the evolutionary processes that sustain it. Systematic Biology 51, 238–54CrossRefGoogle Scholar
& 1998 Comparative phylogeography and the identification of genetically divergent areas for conservation. Molecular Ecology 7, 419–29CrossRefGoogle Scholar
& 1997 Extinction and the loss of evolutionary history. Science 278, 692–4CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
2002 Is the biological species concept showing its age?Trends in Ecology and Evolution 17, 153–4CrossRefGoogle Scholar
1999 Myth and Reality: how Conservation Strategies are Failing in West Africa. Berkeley: University of California PressGoogle Scholar
& 1999 Alternate species concepts as bases for determining priority conservation areas. Conservation Biology 13, 427–31CrossRefGoogle Scholar
& 1988 Atlas of the Amphibians and Reptiles of New Zealand. Wellington, New Zealand: Department of ConservationGoogle Scholar
, , & 2001 A comparison of taxonomic distinctness versus richness as criteria for setting conservation priorities for North American birds. Biological Conservation 97, 99–105CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, , , & 1993 Beyond opportunism: key principles for systematic reserve selection. Trends in Ecology and Evolution 8, 124–8CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
, , & 2000 Nonrandom extinction and the loss of evolutionary history. Science 288, 328–30CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
1994 The role of extinction in evolution. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA 91, 6758–63CrossRefGoogle Scholar
& 2002a Maximising phylogenetic diversity in the selection of networks of conservation areas. Biological Conservation 105, 103–11CrossRefGoogle Scholar
& 2002b Rarity and conservation planning across geopolitical units. Conservation Biology 16, 674–82CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, & 2000 Using presence-absence data to establish reserve selection procedures that are robust to temporal species turnover. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B267, 897–902CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, , et al. 2002 Hotspots and the conservation of evolutionary history. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA 99, 2067–71Google Scholar
, , & 1998 Endemic Bird Areas of the World: Priorities for Biodiversity Conservation. Cambridge: BirdLife InternationalGoogle Scholar
, & 2001 Raising the prospects for a forgotten fauna: a review of 10 years of conservation effort for New Zealand reptiles. Biological Conservation 99, 3–16CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, & 1991 What to protect: systematics and the agony of choice. Biological Conservation 55, 235–54CrossRefGoogle Scholar
2001 Selective extinction and rapid loss of evolutionary history in the bird fauna. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B268, 127–30CrossRefGoogle Scholar
1994 Welwitschia mirabilis Hook. fil.: the survival wonder of west Namibia. Naturwissenschaften 81, 430–42Google Scholar
& 1995 Diversity – PD: procedures for conservation evaluation based on phylogenetic diversity. Biodiversity Letters 2, 132–9CrossRefGoogle Scholar
WWF & IUCN 1994 Centres of Plant Diversity, Volume 1, Europe, Africa, South West Asia and the Middle East. Cambridge, UK: IUCN Publications Unit for WWF (World Wide Fund for Nature) and IUCN (The World Conservation Union)
WWF & IUCN 1995 Centres of Plant Diversity, Volume 2, Asia, Australasia and the Pacific. Cambridge, UK: IUCN Publications Unit for WWF (World Wide Fund for Nature) and IUCN (The World Conservation Union)
- 63
- Cited by