Biodiversity and evolutionary history: useful extensions of the PD phylogenetic diversity assessment framework

• Published in: Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences Vol. 1289; no. 1; pp. 69 - 89
• Main Author: Faith, Daniel P.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01.06.2013; Wiley Subscription Services, Inc
• Subjects: Algorithms; Animals; Biodiversity; Biological Evolution; Cluster Analysis; Databases, Factual; Decision Making; Ecology; Ecosystem; Endemism; Evolution; genomics; microbial ecology; Models, Biological; Models, Statistical; phylogenetic diversity; Phylogenetics; Phylogeny; Risk; Risk analysis; Species diversity; Species extinction
• ISSN: 0077-8923; 1749-6632; 1749-6632
• DOI: 10.1111/nyas.12186

Evolutionary biology is a core discipline in biodiversity science. Evolutionary history or phylogeny provides one natural measure of biodiversity through the popular phylogenetic diversity (PD) measure. The evolutionary model underlying PD means that it can be interpreted as quantifying the relative feature diversity of sets of species. Quantifying feature diversity measures possible future uses and benefits or option values. Interpretation of PD as counting‐up features is the basis for an emerging broad family of PD calculations, of use to both biodiversity researchers and decision makers. Many of these calculations extend conventional species‐level indices to the features level. Useful PD calculations include PD complementarity and endemism, Hill and Valley numbers incorporating abundance, and PD dissimilarities. A flexible analysis framework is provided by expected PD calculations, applied to either probabilities of extinction or presence–absence. Practical extensions include phylogenetic risk analysis and measures of distinctiveness and endemism. These support the integration of phylogenetic diversity into biodiversity conservation and monitoring programs.