Spatial patterns of phylogenetic diversity

Abstract

Ecologists and conservation biologists have historically used species–area and distance–decay relationships as tools to predict the spatial distribution of biodiversity and the impact of habitat loss on biodiversity. These tools treat each species as evolutionarily equivalent, yet the importance of species' evolutionary history in their ecology and conservation is becoming increasingly evident. Here, we provide theoretical predictions for phylogenetic analogues of the species–area and distance–decay relationships. We use a random model of community assembly and a spatially explicit flora dataset collected in four Mediterranean-type regions to provide theoretical predictions for the increase in phylogenetic diversity – the total phylogenetic branch-length separating a set of species – with increasing area and the decay in phylogenetic similarity with geographic separation. These developments may ultimately provide insights into the evolution and assembly of biological communities, and guide the selection of protected areas.

Backbones of evolutionary history test biodiversity theory for microbes

“…Another important empirical direction will be to extend this work across a broader range of taxa. For example, power law scaling of phylogenetic diversity with sample size for angiosperm communities (65) and nonneutrality in tropical forest phylogenies (66) suggest that the patterns we see here may not be restricted to microbes. Identifying the precise similarities and differences across taxonomic groups will undoubtedly lead to a range of insights and may also require more sophisticated analytical approaches given the relatively small size of many species-level phylogenies.…”

Phylogenetic diversity as a window into the evolutionary and biogeographic histories of present-day richness gradients for mammals

“…[105]). While theories for spatial scaling of species diversity are well established, analogous theory for PD is just emerging [106].…”

Phylogenetic and functional characteristics of household yard floras and their changes along an urbanization gradient

“…changes (e.g., Morlon et al 2011), and in ecosystem functions and services. Urban areas, which represent habitats drastically altered by humans, are ''laboratories'' for the study of novel species communities.…”

“…While exotic species generally tend to enrich urban floras, our comparison of the urban yard communities to those of Cedar Creek indicates that the higher urban species richness is accompanied by a decrease in phylogenetic diversity. This decrease of phylogenetic diversity indicates a loss of evolutionary information and a homogenization of plant communities, which could result in a loss of potential to react to environmental changes (e.g., Morlon et al 2011). With closely related exotic species becoming distributed all over the world, and a range of native species becoming locally extinct, the tendency toward homogenization and loss of evolutionary information has global consequences (Winter et al 2009).…”