Phylogeny and Conservation

by Andrew Purvis; John L. Gittleman; Thomas Brooks

• ISBN13: 9780511128691
• ISBN10: 051112869X
• Format: Nonspecific Binding
• Copyright: 2005-09-22
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

Phylogeny is a potentially powerful tool for conserving biodiversity. This book explores how it can be used to tackle questions of great practical importance and urgency for conservation. Using case studies from many different taxa and regions of the world, the volume evaluates how useful phylogeny is in understanding the processes that have generated today's diversity and the processes that now threaten it. The novelty of many of the applications, the increasing ease with which phylogenies can be generated, the urgency with which conservation decisions have to be made and the need to make decisions that are as good as possible together make this volume a timely and important synthesis which will be of great value to researchers, practitioners and policy-makers alike.

Table of Contents

Phylogeny and conservation

Units and Currencies

Molecular phylogenetics for conservation biology

Species: demarcation and diversity

Phylogenetic units and currencies above and below the species level

Integrating phylogenetic diversity in the selection of priority areas for conservation: does it make a difference?

Evolutionary heritage as a metric for conservation

Inferring Evolutionary Processes

Age and area revisited: identifying global patterns and implications for conservation

Putting process on the map: why ecotones are important for preserving biodiversity

The oldest rainforests in Africa: stability or resilience for survival and diversity?

Late Tertiary and Quaternary climate change and centres of endemism in the southern African flora

Historical biogeography, diversity and conservation of Australia's tropical rainforest herpetofauna

Effects of Human Processes

Conservation status and geographic distribution of avian evolutionary history

Correlates of extinction risk: phylogeny, biology, threat and scale

Mechanisms of extinction in birds: phylogeny, ecology and threats

Primate diversity patterns and their conservation in Amazonia

Predicting which species will become invasive: what's taxonomy got to do with it?

Prognosis

Phylogenetic futures after the latest mass extinction

Predicting future speciation

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