TY - JOUR
T1 - Phylogenetic measures of biodiversity and neo- and paleo-endemism in Australian Acacia
AU - Mishler, Brent
AU - Knerr, Nunzio
AU - GONZALEZ-OROZCO, Carlos
AU - Thornhill, Andrew
AU - Laffan, Shawn
AU - Miller, Joseph
N1 - Funding Information:
We acknowledge the Hermon Slade Foundation and the Taxonomy Research and Information Network (TRIN), which is funded by the Australian Commonwealth Environment Research Facilities, for funding the phylogenetic research. We thank A. Schmidt-Lebuhn, D. Ackerly and D. Faith, for comments on the manuscript and/or discussion; I. Sharma, K. Lam and C. Miller for help in the DNA lab; and CSIRO (Australia) for a Distinguished Visiting Scientist Award to B.D.M.
PY - 2014/7/18
Y1 - 2014/7/18
N2 - Understanding spatial patterns of biodiversity is critical for conservation planning, particularly given rapid habitat loss and human-induced climatic change. Diversity and endemism are typically assessed by comparing species ranges across regions. However, investigation of patterns of species diversity alone misses out on the full richness of patterns that can be inferred using a phylogenetic approach. Here, using Australian Acacia as an example, we show that the application of phylogenetic methods, particularly two new measures, relative phylogenetic diversity and relative phylogenetic endemism, greatly enhances our knowledge of biodiversity across both space and time. We found that areas of high species richness and species endemism are not necessarily areas of high phylogenetic diversity or phylogenetic endemism. We propose a new method called categorical analysis of neo- and paleoendemism (CANAPE) that allows, for the first time, a clear, quantitative distinction between centres of neo- and paleo-endemism, useful to the conservation decision-making process.
AB - Understanding spatial patterns of biodiversity is critical for conservation planning, particularly given rapid habitat loss and human-induced climatic change. Diversity and endemism are typically assessed by comparing species ranges across regions. However, investigation of patterns of species diversity alone misses out on the full richness of patterns that can be inferred using a phylogenetic approach. Here, using Australian Acacia as an example, we show that the application of phylogenetic methods, particularly two new measures, relative phylogenetic diversity and relative phylogenetic endemism, greatly enhances our knowledge of biodiversity across both space and time. We found that areas of high species richness and species endemism are not necessarily areas of high phylogenetic diversity or phylogenetic endemism. We propose a new method called categorical analysis of neo- and paleoendemism (CANAPE) that allows, for the first time, a clear, quantitative distinction between centres of neo- and paleo-endemism, useful to the conservation decision-making process.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84904700663&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1038/ncomms5473
DO - 10.1038/ncomms5473
M3 - Article
SN - 2041-1723
VL - 5
SP - 1
EP - 10
JO - Nature Communications
JF - Nature Communications
M1 - 4473
ER -