The future of comparative biology in a phylogenetic age: Enabling the power and potential of the genealogy of life

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The evolutionary relationships among species of animals, plants, fungi and microbes is a large, complex, branching network that biologists call the Tree of Life. Obtaining the complete Tree of Life for all living things is a grand challenge in science, on the same intellectual scale as investigating the nature of matter or the origin of the universe: it is fundamental to understanding our world, central to human sustainability, and critical as a framework for future discovery. Scientists have made major progress toward this challenge by combining biology with computer science and successfully generating large genealogies of thousands and even millions of species. These large phylogenetic trees are now available to researchers in many branches of biology -- from genomics to ecology -- and have great promise for applied science in medicine, agriculture, industry, and climate-change mitigation. It is critical that scientists develop a future vision for this area of scientific exploration and make clear the central role of phylogenetics in the strategic integration of biodiversity science across US academic, corporate and government institutions. To achieve this vision, this project has developed a three-year program of catalysis meetings and workshops to bring together and enlarge the Tree of Life community. By uniting a wide range of biologists, computational experts, and representatives from corporate entities, foundations, and government agencies, the meeting series will generate a mechanism for scientific input into the strategic vision of biodiversity science.The workshops series will impact many areas of research involving biodiversity and evolution by addressing three over-arching goals: (1) identifying challenges and progress in generating, storing and visualizing the genealogy of life, (2) integrating large data layers with the tree of life, and (3) developing a clear plan and compelling vision for the future of phylogenetic biology. The workshops and catalysis meetings will include students and early-career scientists, as well as educators and members of key corporate, government and non-profit organizations, with the aim to create new, lasting partnerships that bridge across interest groups. Tangible products of the meetings will include educational materials, publications that highlight broader uses of Tree of Life as well as advances in software that will be open source and available to a wide audience. At completion of the workshop series the participants will produce a white paper discussing ideas and challenges for long-term sustainability of biodiversity data.