Conserving avian evolutionary history can effectively safeguard future benefits for people.

ABSTRACT: Phylogenetic diversity (PD)-the evolutionary history of a set of species-is conceptually linked to the maintenance of yet-to-be-discovered benefits from biodiversity or "option value." We used global phylogenetic and utilization data for birds to test the PD option value link, under the assumption that the performance of sets of PD-maximizing species at capturing known benefits is analogous to selecting the same species at a point in human history before these benefits were realized. PD performed better than random at capturing utilized bird species across 60% of tests, with performance linked to the phylogenetic dispersion and prevalence of each utilization category. Prioritizing threatened species for conservation by the PD they encapsulate performs comparably to prioritizing by their fu

SUBMITTER: Gumbs R 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10511189 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature