Abstract Detail

Phylogenetic approaches to understanding biodiversity and endemism

Thornhill, Andrew [1], Knerr, Nunzio [2], Gonzalez-Orozco, Carlos [3], Laffan, Shawn [4], Mishler, Brent [1], Miller, Joseph [5].

Patterns of diversity and endemism at different phylogenetic scales using examples from the Australian flora.

One advantage of phylogenetic approaches to diversity and endemism is that clades of organisms can be compared at various levels, rather than just at the species level as in classic approaches. The geographic distribution of clades can be examined at any phylogenetic level -- in some cases the information for one clade could come from hundreds of species. Understanding the difference in the spatial patterns that are seen at different phylogenetic scales, e.g., a genus of 800 species being treated as one terminal in an analysis versus 800 terminals, is critical to the use of spatial phylogenetic metrics. This project investigates spatial patterns of phylogenetic diversity and endemism at multiple scales, using a phylogeny of the Australian-wide occurring plant group, the eucalypts, and a separate Australian angiosperm genus phylogeny. Australia is a world leader in the digitization of botanical specimen data. There are over 5 million plant records stored in Australia's Virtual Herbarium (AVH), most of which are georeferenced. The Australian tree canopy is dominated by the eucalypts, a monophyletic clade comprised of three genera - Angophora, Corymbia, and Eucalyptus. Of the records in the AVH, 5% are eucalypt specimens. We developed a phylogeny of over 600 eucalypt species using four genes. In combination with the AVH spatial data we tested the effect of phylogenetic scale on diversity and endemism results by treating the eucalypt phylogeny at different clade levels, i.e. as 20 terminals, 100 terminals, or 600 terminals. It was expected that areas of significant endemism could change depending on the phylogenetic scale of terminals that are used. We also studied another example, a phylogeny containing 90% of Australia’s flowering plant genera as terminals, and a spatial data set with over 2 million records to further demonstrate the effect of scaling on phylogenetic diversity and endemism studies.

1 - University of California, Berkeley, University and Jepson Herbaria, 1001 Valley Life Sciences Building # 2465 , Berkeley, CA, 94720-2465, USA
2 - CSIRO, Centre for Australian National Biodiversity Research, National Research Collections, Black Mountain, Canberra, ACT, 2601, Australia
3 - University of Canberra, Collaborative Research Network for Murray-Darling Basin Futures, Canberra, ACT, 2601, Australia
4 - University of New South Wales, Centre for Ecosystem Science, School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences, Sydney, NSW, 2052, Australia
5 - National Science Foundation, Division of Environmental Biology, 4201 Wilson Ave, Arlington, VA, 22204, USA, 703-292-7214

Keywords:
Spatial phylogenetics
Australia
biodiversity
phylogenetic diversity
phylogenetic endemism
eucalypts.

Presentation Type: Symposium Presentation
Session: SY17
Location: Salon 15/16/The Shaw Conference Centre
Date: Wednesday, July 29th, 2015
Time: 4:15 PM
Number: SY17007
Abstract ID:286
Candidate for Awards:None