Phylogenetically Clustered Extinction Risks Do Not Substantially Prune the Tree of Life

Parhar, Rakesh K.; Mooers, Arne Ø.

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0023528

Cited by 32 publications

(53 citation statements)

References 53 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…That species facing elevated extinction risk are not concentrated in particular parts of the phylogeny is no cause for optimism, however, as recent simulations have shown that other factors are involved in determining the magnitude of PD loss during extinctions [123]. In particular, trees derived from real data generally have asymmetric topologies [124]–[128]; the coral supertree is no exception (P<0.001, Colless' [129] index significantly greater than predicted by the Yule model).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 94%

Threatened Reef Corals of the World

2012

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

A substantial proportion of the world's living species, including one-third of the reef-building corals, are threatened with extinction and in pressing need of conservation action. In order to reduce biodiversity loss, it is important to consider species' contribution to evolutionary diversity along with their risk of extinction for the purpose of setting conservation priorities. Here I reconstruct the most comprehensive tree of life for the order Scleractinia (1,293 species) that includes all 837 living reef species, and employ a composite measure of phylogenetic distinctiveness and extinction risk to identify the most endangered lineages that would not be given top priority on the basis of risk alone. The preservation of these lineages, not just the threatened species, is vital for safeguarding evolutionary diversity. Tests for phylogeny-associated patterns show that corals facing elevated extinction risk are not clustered on the tree, but species that are susceptible, resistant or resilient to impacts such as bleaching and disease tend to be close relatives. Intensification of these threats or extirpation of the endangered lineages could therefore result in disproportionate pruning of the coral tree of life.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 94%

Threatened Reef Corals of the World

2012

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Observations for greater than random losses of phylogenetic diversity that have been inferred for many clades under realistic extinction scenarios likely refl ect the particularities of phylogenetic tree topology in combination with a tendency for more extinction prone species to fall within species poor clades (Heard and Mooers 2000 ;von Euler 2001 ;Parhar and Mooers 2011 ). There does seem to be a general trend within some clades for threatened species to be overrepresented in speciespoor clades (e.g.…”

Section: Quantifying the Loss Of Evolutionary Historymentioning

confidence: 97%

“…2 ). However, in a more recent study, again using simulations, but this time assuming both a more realistic model of diversifi cation and a range of phylogenetic signal in extinction probabilities, Parhar and Mooers ( 2011 ) suggested that the loss of phylogenetic diversity under phylogenetically non-random extinctions was more or less indistinguishable from random (see also Heard and Mooers 2000 ). Seemingly, the observation of phylogenetic signal in extinction risks and the non-random loss of phylogenetic diversity are not necessarily connected directly.…”

Section: Quantifying the Loss Of Evolutionary Historymentioning

confidence: 99%

Reconsidering the Loss of Evolutionary History: How Does Non-random Extinction Prune the Tree-of-Life?

Yessoufou

Davies

2016

Topics in Biodiversity and Conservation

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Analysing extinction within a phylogenetic framework may seem counter-intuitive because extinction is a priori a non-heritable trait. However, extinction risk is correlated with other traits, such as body size, that show a strong phylogenetic signal. Further, there has been much effort in identifying key traits important for diversifi cation, and recent evidence has demonstrated that the processes of speciation and extinction may be inextricably linked. A phylogenetic approach also allows us to quantify the impact of extinction, for example, as the loss of branches from the tree-of-life. Early work suggested that extinctions might result in little loss of evolutionary history, but subsequent studies indicated that nonrandom extinctions might prune more of the evolutionary tree. Loss of phylogenetic diversity might have ecosystem consequences because functional differences between species tend to be correlated with the evolutionary distances between them. Here we explore how extinction prunes the tree-of-life. Our review indicates that the loss of evolutionary history under non-random extinction (the emerging pattern in extinction biology) might be less pronounced than some previous studies have suggested. However, the loss of functional diversity might still be large, depending on the evolutionary model of trait change. Under a punctuated model of evolution, in which trait differences accrue in bursts at speciation, the number of branches lost is more important than their summed lengths. We suggest that evolutionary models need to be incorporated more explicitly into measures of phylogenetic diversity if we are to use phylogeny as a proxy for functional diversity.

show abstract

“…While extinction prunes the tree of life non-randomly, the loss of evolutionary history, measured in phylogenetic branch lengths scaled in millions of years, is not always greater than predicted by chance [55,68]. In addition, the loss of PD does not always correlate with the loss of feature diversity [42], and recent work suggests there may be a scale dependence in the correlation between phylogenetic distance and feature similarity [41].…”

Section: Extinction and The Loss Of Feature Diversitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Losing history: how extinctions prune features from the tree of life

Davies

2015

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Biodiversity provides many valuable services to humanity; however, rapid expansion of the human population has placed increasing pressure on natural systems, and it has been suggested that we may be entering a sixth mass extinction. There is an urgent need, therefore, to prioritize conservation efforts if we are to maintain the provisioning of such service in the future. Phylogenetic diversity (PD), the summed branch lengths that connect species on the treeof-life, might provide a valuable metric for conservation prioritization because it has been argued to capture feature diversity. Frequently, PD is estimated in millions of years, and therefore implicitly assumes an evolutionary model in which features diverge gradually over time. Here, I explore the expected loss of feature diversity when this assumption is violated. If evolution tends to slow down over time, as might be the case following adaptive radiations, losses of feature diversity might be relatively small. However, if evolution occurs in rapid bursts, following a punctuated model, impacts of extinctions might be much greater. PD captures many important properties, but if we use it as a proxy for feature diversity, we first need to ensure that we have the correct evolutionary model.

show abstract

Phylogenetically Clustered Extinction Risks Do Not Substantially Prune the Tree of Life

Cited by 32 publications

References 53 publications

Threatened Reef Corals of the World

Threatened Reef Corals of the World

Reconsidering the Loss of Evolutionary History: How Does Non-random Extinction Prune the Tree-of-Life?

Losing history: how extinctions prune features from the tree of life

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About