CAN WE DO BIODIVERSITY CONSERVATION WITHOUT SPECIES?

CASUAL SEMINAR IN BIODIVERSITY AND EVOLUTION

The idea of using evolutionary relationships to inform conservation decisions is not new, but we are now at the point where it is becoming seriously practical. With global and regional examples, I will show how knowledge of evolutionary relationships can support more effective use of scarce conservation resources. I will argue that with genetic information, we can often work around unreliable or incomplete taxonomy, to map biodiversity and identify priority areas for conservation, in some cases without reference to currently named species.

Dan Rosauer is a Research Fellow in the Research School of Biology at the Australian National University in Canberra, and a member of Prof. Craig Moritz’s research group. He analyses spatial patterns in the distribution of biodiversity to answer questions of conservation, biogeography and macroecology. He has particular interest in techniques for measurement and spatial modelling of phylogenetic diversity, and in the biodiversity informatics techniques which make this possible. Formally, he was a Donnelley Postdoctoral Fellow at Yale University, studying global patterns of phylogenetic endemism in terrestrial mammals with Walter Jetz.

[Host: Sílvia Carvalho, Theoretical Ecology and Biodiversity Modelling and Biodiversity of Deserts and Arid Regions]

Image Credits: Dan Rosauer