Mapping biodiversity and setting conservation priorities for SE Queensland's rainforests using DNA barcoding.

ABSTRACT: Australian rainforests have been fragmented due to past climatic changes and more recently landscape change as a result of clearing for agriculture and urban spread. The subtropical rainforests of South Eastern Queensland are significantly more fragmented than the tropical World Heritage listed northern rainforests and are subject to much greater human population pressures. The Australian rainforest flora is relatively taxonomically rich at the family level, but less so at the species level. Current methods to assess biodiversity based on species numbers fail to adequately capture this richness at higher taxonomic levels. We developed a DNA barcode library for the SE Queensland rainforest flora to support a methodology for biodiversity assessment that incorporates both taxonomic diversity

SUBMITTER: Shapcott A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4372436 | biostudies-literature | 2015

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature