Category: Research
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Protecting biodiversity and ecosystem services
The many values of nature: Intrinsic value reflects the high value attributed to biodiversity (e.g. species) and ecosystem functioning, independently of human presence. Cultural value reflects the high value placed on natural heritage and traditions rooted in nature (e.g. the diversity of mushroom and plant species for gathering, heritage landscapes, nature tourism). Regulating value places…
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Where in the world is the unprotected diversity? New paper out in Nature
The world’s biodiversity is in crisis. Species are declining at an alarming rate. And this is happening at just the time we are really beginning to understand this diversity through an unprecedented cataloging and compiling of information. Data repositories are filled with hundreds of thousands of entries about species, where they live, how they live, and…
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Climate change threatens eucalypt diversity
We have a new paper out in Nature Climate Change that combines Species Distribution Models (SDMs), climate change and phylogenetic diversity metrics. This is very exciting as it is the first paper from our PD working group. Some highlights: -We explore the effect of climate change on various PD metrics (including endemism-based metrics) for all eucalypts…
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The tangled past of eucalypt communities
After a long road, that began with a comment, ‘Of course related eucalypts don’t coexist, most of them are distributed allopatrically, and if they do re-mix, they will hybridise anyway’.. followed by many years of field-work, lab work, running models, revisions, more revisions, even more revisions.. we came to the conclusion, that indeed, evolutionary history probably explains why closely…
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Linking species distribution models (SDM) and phylogenies
When using phylogenies in spatial conservation prioritisation, we need to link the phylogeny with distribution data. Increasingly, distribution data is used to predict where species occur across the landscape using a species distribution model (SDM). SDMs are currently underused in conservation, but have great potential for a variety of applications from threatened species management to conservation planning.…
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Prioritizing areas for conservation with phylogenetic diversity
Why is evolutionary history rarely considered in actual conservation planning? Well, there are many reasons. Conservation practitioners might not be aware that evolutionary diversity can be used in conservation. If they are aware, maybe it doesn’t compete with the vast number of other conservation concerns. Or maybe they do value it, and would like to…
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Small areas translate to big gains in evolutionary diversity
Read more from the New Scientist: Tree of bird life could solve Noah’s Ark problem
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Keeping the tree of life intact
How do we best preserve the world’s remaining biodiversity? That was the topic of a conference I attended last week at the Royal Society in London on ‘Phylogeny, extinction risk and conservation’. The two-day conference included a range of interesting presentations on global to regional conservation efforts. Obviously the extinction story can be a depressing…
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Co-occurrence within an SDM
We have a new paper out at MEE. It is a guide on how to use Joint Species Distribution Models (JSDMs) originally known (to us) as Multivariate Probit models (MVP), a name which thankfully didn’t stick. Without delving into the details, this is a way to use species co-occurrence data when modelling species distributions. Why is…
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Where in the landscape are the refugia?
Locating areas where species will likely persist in future climate changes has recently become a conservation priority. How do we find these areas? A good first step is to look for places that species persisted through past climate changes (often termed ‘refugia’). We think we may have identified mini or micro-refugia for trees on deep, protected…