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 use it, but are not sure how.

We have a new paper out in PhilTransRocSocB that addresses this last problem. We show how to use phylogenetic diversity in spatial prioritisation software. The advantage of using this software is that diversity can be considered alongside other concerns–extinction risk, connectivity, cost etc.

What do you need to do this?

1-distribution data (occurrence in grids or a species distribution model-SDM)

2-a phylogeny

How does it work?   Continue reading Prioritizing areas for conservation with phylogenetic diversity →