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Evolutionarily distinctive species often capture more phylogenetic diversity than expected
Citation
Redding, DW and Hartmann, K and Mimoto, A and Bokal, D and Devos, M and Mooers, AO, Evolutionarily distinctive species often capture more phylogenetic diversity than expected, Journal of Theoretical Biology: An International Multidisciplinary Journal, 251, (4) pp. 606-615. ISSN 0022-5193 (2008) [Refereed Article]
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DOI: doi:10.1016/j.jtbi.2007.12.006
Abstract
Evolutionary distinctiveness measures of how evolutionarily isolated a species is relative to other members of its clade. Recently,
distinctiveness metrics that explicitly incorporate time have been proposed for conservation prioritization. However, we found that such
measures differ qualitatively in how well they capture the total amount of evolution (termed phylogenetic diversity, or PD) represented
by a set of species. We used simulation and simple graph theory to explore this relationship with reference to phylogenetic tree shape.
Overall, the distinctiveness measures capture more PD on more unbalanced trees and on trees with many splits near the present. The rank
order of performance was robust across tree shapes, with apportioning measures performing best and node-based measures performing
worst. A sample of 50 ultrametric trees from the literature showed the same patterns. Taken together, this suggests that distinctiveness
metrics may be a useful addition to other measures of value for conservation prioritization of species. The simplest measure, the age of a
species, performed surprisingly well, suggesting that new measures that focus on tree shape near the tips may provide a transparent
alternative to more complicated full-tree approaches.
Item Details
Item Type: | Refereed Article |
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Keywords: | Conservation priorities; Distinctiveness; Evolutionary value; Genetic uniqueness |
Research Division: | Mathematical Sciences |
Research Group: | Applied mathematics |
Research Field: | Biological mathematics |
Objective Division: | Environmental Management |
Objective Group: | Terrestrial systems and management |
Objective Field: | Terrestrial biodiversity |
UTAS Author: | Hartmann, K (Dr Klaas Hartmann) |
ID Code: | 71701 |
Year Published: | 2008 |
Web of Science® Times Cited: | 83 |
Deposited By: | Sustainable Marine Research Collaboration |
Deposited On: | 2011-08-02 |
Last Modified: | 2011-08-02 |
Downloads: | 1 View Download Statistics |
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