Predicting loss of evolutionary history: Where are we?

The Earth's evolutionary history is threatened by species loss in the current sixth mass extinction event in Earth's history. Such extinction events not only eliminate species but also their unique evolutionary histories. Here we review the expected loss of Earth's evolutionary history quantified by phylogenetic diversity (PD) and evolutionary distinctiveness (ED) at risk. Due to the general paucity of data, global evolutionary history losses have been predicted for only a few groups, such as mammals, birds, amphibians, plants, corals and fishes. Among these groups, there is now empirical support that extinction threats are clustered on the phylogeny; however this is not always a sufficient condition to cause higher loss of phylogenetic diversity in comparison to a scenario of random extinctions. Extinctions of the most evolutionarily distinct species and the shape of phylogenetic trees are additional factors that can elevate losses of evolutionary history. Consequently, impacts of species extinctions differ among groups and regions, and even if global losses are low within large groups, losses can be high among subgroups or within some regions. Further, we show that PD and ED are poorly protected by current conservation practices. While evolutionary history can be indirectly protected by current conservation schemes, optimizing its preservation requires integrating phylogenetic indices with those that capture rarity and extinction risk. Measures based on PD and ED could bring solutions to conservation issues, however they are still rarely used in practice, probably because the reasons to protect evolutionary history are not clear for practitioners or due to a lack of data. However, important advances have been made in the availability of phylogenetic trees and methods for their construction, as well as assessments of extinction risk. Some challenges remain, and looking forward, research should prioritize the assessment of expected PD and ED loss for more taxonomic groups and test the assumption that preserving ED and PD also protects rare species and ecosystem services. Such research will be useful to inform and guide the conservation of Earth's biodiversity and the services it provides.     

不同土地利用方式对河北坝上步甲物种多样性的影响

为了探讨土地利用方式对步甲物种多样性的影响及其与环境因子的关系, 于2009年5-10月利用巴氏罐法, 对河北坝上塞北管理区内的灌草丛、马铃薯地、苜蓿地、围封草地、中度放牧草地和重度放牧草地6种生境的步甲进行了系统调查。结果表明: （1）共捕获步甲标本10 804号, 计10属18种, 其中强足通缘步甲Pterostichus fortipes、侧步甲Carabus latreillei和双斑猛步甲Cymindis binotata占优势, 个体数分别占总数的67.5%, 7.53%和7.06%。（2）苜蓿地中的步甲密度、物种丰富度、Margalef丰富度指数、Shannon-Wiener多样性指数和均匀度指数均较高, 其他样地较低。（3）聚类分析结果显示, 不同生境的步甲群落相似性与受干扰强度和土地利用方式一致。（4）步甲主要在6-9月活动, 高峰期为7-8月。各物种在不同土地利用方式生境内的季节变化趋势与不同生境植被生长季节相关, 步甲个体数量随着植物生物量的增加而增加。强足通缘步甲Pterostichus fortipes高峰期大多出现在植物生长旺盛的7月, 仅围封草地内的高峰出现在8月; 双斑猛步甲Cymindis binotata的高峰期出现在8-9月。（5）典范对应分析表明, 土壤含水量、土壤温度、植物盖度、植物生物量及植株高度是影响步甲群落组成的重要环境因子。结论认为, 不同土地利用方式对环境的干扰影响了步甲赖以生存的生境, 进而影响了其物种的组成和数量分布格局。     

城市公园和郊区公园生物多样性评估的指标

随着城市化进程的加快,城市的生物多样性不可避免地受到城市化的各种影响,城市及其郊区的生物多样性保护越来越受到人们的重视。城市公园与郊区公园中往往具有高度多样化的生境,并保存着某些自然植被片段和动物物种,那里的生物多样性较高。可见,在城市和郊区的生物多样性保护中,公园生物多样性的保护是一个非常关键的环节,而对其生物多样性的评估又是有效保护的基础。目前,我国生物多样性评估方面的研究工作多集中于物种水平,而对生境的研究较少,但实践证明,保护生境比保护物种更为重要。本文介绍了比利时学者Hermy & Cornelis在比利时西佛兰德省的Loppem市立公园的保护实践中构建的一种对城市公园和郊区公园中的生物多样性进行评估的方法。该方法从两个方面展开：生境多样性和物种多样性。在生境水平上,首先对各种生境单元进行分类,这些单元被分为面状、线状和点状要素。针对每种要素,分别计算了Shannon-Wiener多样性指数和饱和度指数。饱和度指数是实际的多样性指数与最大可能的多样性指数之比。在物种水平上,使用了物种数、Shannon-Wiener多样性指数和饱和度指数来评估公园中的高等植物、蝴蝶、两栖动物和饲养的鸟类等物种。这样,就获得了20个生物多样性指标,根据这些指数就可以对Loppem市立公园内的生物多样性进行评估。结合我国生物多样性评估工作的实际要求,文章最后对上述方法进行了讨论,指出该方法对我国公园的生物多样性评估工作具有借鉴意义,但在运用时各地需要结合本地的实际情况。     

The sinking ark: pollution and the worldwide loss of biodiversity

Humans are making increasing demands on natural ecosystems. One recent study has concluded that our species is consuming or diverting some 40% of the net photosynthetic productivity of our planet. Many habitats are being converted to simpler systems which provide more harvestable goods to people. As a result, genetic diversity, species and whole ecosystems are disappearing; some scientists suggest that as many as 25% of the world's species could be lost in the next several decades.The sinking ark is usually characterized in terms of pollution, habitat loss, poaching, introduced species and illegal trade in wildlife products, but these are symptoms rather than causes. At a more fundamental level, many of the same factors which have enabled pollution to become such a problem have also been responsible for the loss in biodiversity; the most important factor is that the effects of pollutants on biodiversity have been considered an externality, an unintended side effect of industrial activity which brought measurable benefits to people. Development activities which have depleted biodiversity have proven profitable only because the real costs have been hidden.Keeping the ark afloat will require the Five-I Approach: investigation (learning how natural systems function); information (ensuring that the facts are available to inform decisions); incentives (using economic tools to help conserve biodiversity); integration (promoting a cross-sectoral approach to conserving biodiversity); and international support (building productive collaboration for conserving biodiversity).     

Traits,trees and taxa: global dimensions of biodiversity in mammals

Measures of biodiversity encompass variation along several dimensions such as species richness (SR), phylogenetic diversity (PD) and functional/trait diversity (TD). At the global scale, it is widely recognized that SR and PD are strongly correlated, but the extent to which either tends to capture variation in TD is unclear. Here, we assess relationships among PD, SR and TD for a number of traits both across clades and regional assemblages of mammals. We also contrast results using two different measures of TD, trait variance and a new measure we refer to as trait bin filling (the number of orders of magnitude of variation that contain at least one species). When TD is defined as trait variance, PD is a much stronger correlate of TD than SR across clades, consistent with hypotheses about the conservation value of PD. However, when TD is defined as bin filling, PD and SR show similar correlations with TD across clades and space. We also investigate potential losses of SR, PD and TD if species that are currently threatened were to go extinct, and find that threatened PD is often a similar predictor of threatened TD as SR.     

Why and how might genetic and phylogenetic diversity be reflected in the identification of key biodiversity areas?

‘Key biodiversity areas'' are defined as sites contributing significantly to the global persistence of biodiversity. The identification of these sites builds from existing approaches based on measures of species and ecosystem diversity and process. Here, we therefore build from the work of Sgró et al. (2011 Evol. Appl.4, 326–337. (doi:10.1111/j.1752-4571.2010.00157.x)) to extend a framework for how components of genetic diversity might be considered in the identification of key biodiversity areas. We make three recommendations to inform the ongoing process of consolidating a key biodiversity areas standard: (i) thresholds for the threatened species criterion currently consider a site''s share of a threatened species'' population; expand these to include the proportion of the species'' genetic diversity unique to a site; (ii) expand criterion for ‘threatened species'' to consider ‘threatened taxa’ and (iii) expand the centre of endemism criterion to identify as key biodiversity areas those sites holding a threshold proportion of the compositional or phylogenetic diversity of species (within a taxonomic group) whose restricted ranges collectively define a centre of endemism. We also recommend consideration of occurrence of EDGE species (i.e. threatened phylogenetic diversity) in key biodiversity areas to prioritize species-specific conservation actions among sites.     

云南被子植物菊类分支的系统发育多样性及其分布格局

全球气候变化与人为活动等因素导致的生物多样性丧失,引起了全球各界对生物多样性保护的高度关注。传统生物多样性保护主要对物种、特有种、受威胁物种的种类组成及其分布模式开展研究,忽视了进化历史在生物多样性保护中的作用。云南是全球生物多样性热点地区的交汇区,生物多样性的保护历来受到广泛关注,为了更好地探讨云南生物多样性的保护措施,该研究以云南被子植物菊类分支物种为研究对象,基于物种间的演化关系,结合其地理分布,从进化历史的角度探讨物种、特有种、受威胁物种的种类组成及系统发育组成的分布格局,并整合自然保护地的空间分布,识别生物多样性的重点保护区域。结果表明：云南被子植物菊类分支的物种、特有种及受威胁物种的物种密度与系统发育多样性均显著正相关;通过零模型分析发现,由南向北标准化系统发育多样性逐渐降低;云南南部、东南部、西北部是云南被子植物菊类分支的重点保护区域,加强这些区域的保护,将最大化地保护生物多样性的进化历史和进化潜能。由此可见,融合进化历史信息的植物多样性格局分析不仅有助于更加深入地理解植物多样性的形成与演变,也为生物多样性保护策略的制定提供更多的思路。