Nature Communications (Jul 2018)

Prioritizing phylogenetic diversity captures functional diversity unreliably

  • Florent Mazel,
  • Matthew W. Pennell,
  • Marc W. Cadotte,
  • Sandra Diaz,
  • Giulio Valentino Dalla Riva,
  • Richard Grenyer,
  • Fabien Leprieur,
  • Arne O. Mooers,
  • David Mouillot,
  • Caroline M. Tucker,
  • William D. Pearse

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-018-05126-3
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 9, no. 1
pp. 1 – 9

Abstract

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An ongoing conservation question is if we can maintain functional diversity by optimizing for preservation of phylogenetic diversity. Here, Mazel et al. show that functional diversity increases with phylogenetic diversity in some clades but not others, and thus could be a risky conservation strategy.