Anatomy of a biodiversity hotspot: investigating the evolutionary and ecological basis of high plant diversity in southwestern Australia.

澳大利亚西南部--澳大利亚唯一的全球生物多样性热点--有着异常丰富的植物区系，但却遭受了广泛的栖息地丧失，因此许多稀有植物面临灭绝的威胁。此外，在预测的气候变化情景下，该地区预计将遭受严重影响，这将使描述和了解该地区植物生物多样性的努力变得紧迫。该项目将首次对生物多样性的一个重要但迄今鲜为人知的方面--生态群落的进化结构--进行描述和分析。这将增进我们对群落如何聚集的理解，为西南地区生物多样性的可持续管理提供更有力的科学依据。

Southwestern Australia - Australia's only global biodiversity hotspot - has an exceptionally rich flora but has suffered extensive habitat loss, so many rare plants are threatened with extinction. Further, this region is expected to suffer severely under projected climate change scenarios, lending urgency to efforts to describe and understand the regions plant biodiversity. This project will provide the first description and analysis of an important but hitherto little-known aspect of biodiversity, the evolutionary structure of ecological communities. This will enhance our understanding of how communities are assembled, providing a stronger scientific basis for sustainable management of the southwest's biodiversity.