Biology – Quantitative Biology – Populations and Evolution
Scientific paper
2007-04-20
Biology
Quantitative Biology
Populations and Evolution
19 pages, 2 figures
Scientific paper
If predictions for species extinctions hold, then the `tree of life' today may be quite different to that in (say) 100 years. We describe a technique to quantify how much each species is likely to contribute to future biodiversity, as measured by its expected contribution to phylogenetic diversity. Our approach considers all possible scenarios for the set of species that will be extant at some future time, and weights them according to their likelihood under an independent (but not identical) distribution on species extinctions. Although the number of extinction scenarios can typically be very large, we show that there is a simple algorithm that will quickly compute this index. The method is implemented and applied to the prosimian primates as a test case, and the associated species ranking is compared to a related measure (the `Shapley index'). We describe indices for rooted and unrooted trees, and a modification that also includes the focal taxon's probability of extinction, making it directly comparable to some new conservation metrics.
Mimoto Aki
Mooers Arne O.
Steel Mike
No associations
LandOfFree
Hedging our bets: the expected contribution of species to future phylogenetic diversity does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.
If you have personal experience with Hedging our bets: the expected contribution of species to future phylogenetic diversity, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Hedging our bets: the expected contribution of species to future phylogenetic diversity will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-573318