An assessment of methods to combine evolutionary history and conservation: A case study in the Brazilian campo rupestre

• Published in: Applications in plant sciences Vol. 12; no. 3; pp. e11587 - n/a
• Main Authors: Pizzardo, Raquel C., Nic Lughadha, Eimear, Rando, Juliana Gastaldello, Forest, Félix, Nogueira, Anselmo, Prochazka, Luana S., Walker, Barnaby E., Vasconcelos, Thais
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States John Wiley & Sons, Inc 01.05.2024; John Wiley and Sons Inc; Wiley
• Subjects: Application; Biodiversity; Biodiversity hot spots; Biogeography; campo rupestre; Case studies; Chamaecrista; Conservation; EDGE; EDGE2; Endangered & extinct species; Evolution; Extinction; Flowers & plants; Legumes; Life history; mountain range; phylogenetic diversity; Phylogenetics; Phylogeny; Species extinction; Species richness; Threatened species; Threats; Wildlife conservation; Brazil; Atlantic Forest; EDGE2; campo rupestre; mountain range; EDGE; Chamaecrista; phylogenetic diversity
• ISSN: 2168-0450; 2168-0450
• DOI: 10.1002/aps3.11587

Premise Conservation policies typically focus on biodiversity hotspots. An alternative approach involves analyzing the evolutionary history of lineages in geographic areas along with their threat levels to guide conservation efforts. Mountains exhibit high levels of plant species richness and micro‐endemism, and biogeographic studies commonly point to recent and rapid evolutionary radiations in these areas. Using a nearly endemic clade of legumes, our study evaluates conservation prioritization approaches in the campo rupestre, a Neotropical ecosystem associated with mountaintops that is located between two biodiversity hotspots. Methods We compared the EDGE and EDGE2 metrics, which combine the evolutionary distinctiveness and the extinction risk of a species in a single value. These metrics are compared with traditional metrics used to assess conservation priority, such as phylogenetic diversity. Results The EDGE values reported are lower than those of other studies using this metric, mostly due to the prevalence of threatened species with short phylogenetic branch lengths (low values of evolutionary distinctiveness). Certain areas of campo rupestre with relatively high phylogenetic diversity and EDGE values do not correspond to areas with high species richness, agreeing with previous studies on biodiversity hotspots. Discussion Our study highlights the necessity of conservation of the campo rupestres as well as advantages and disadvantages of using EDGE, EDGE2, and phylogenetic diversity for appropriate selection of conservation areas with rapid evolutionary radiations. The selection of the metrics will depend primarily on the life history of the focus group and the data availability, as well as the conservation approach.