EDGE Angiosperms: integrating phylogenetics and extinction risk data for conservation prioritisation in flowering plants

EDGE 被子植物：整合系统发育学和灭绝风险数据，确定开花植物的保护优先顺序

• 批准号: 2744005
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: Imperial College London
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Studentship
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2022 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=studentship-2744005
• 关键词: EDGE; Angiosperms; integrating; phylogenetics; extinction

Extinction results not only in species loss, but also in loss of the unique evolutionary history that these species represent, including the irreplaceable features they may exhibit. Not all species are equal in evolutionary terms; an isolated species on the tree of life represent more unique evolutionary history than a recently evolved species with several close relatives. Species extinction also reduces evolutionary potential, the ability of a group of organisms to survive and adapt to future environmental changes.There are around 350,000 species of vascular plants, many of which are dominant ecosystem components and vital for the survival of countless other species. With 40% of plants estimated to be at risk of extinction, obtaining an overview of which ones are these and which threats they face is central to protecting not only these species, but entire ecosystems. Which species and areas should be prioritised in conservation programmes is a recurrent question, but even more so in large groups of organisms where a sizeable proportion is threatened. There is generally a consensus regarding the need to optimise the preservation of the tree of life. Thus, metrics based on evolutionary history have been proposed as approaches of choice to implement prioritization in conservation. Various methods based on the concept of phylogenetic diversity have been proposed. The Evolutionarily Distinct and Globally Endangered (EDGE) approach ranks species according to their evolutionary distinctiveness and the level of extinction risk they face. This approach was adopted by the Zoological Society of London and applied to several animal groups (www.edgeofexistence.org) but has not been as widely used in flowering plants. This PhD project will contribute to an ongoing programme which main objective is to produce a global priority conservation list for flowering plants based on their evolutionary distinctiveness and global endangerment and determine where these species are found in the highest concentrations. The project involves the compilation of a synthetic phylogenetic tree for all angiosperm species and an estimate of the extinction risk faced by each species, based directly or indirectly on conservation assessments. The development of a semi-automated pipeline will allow a regular re-calculation of these evolutionary metrics and provide objective means of monitoring the effectiveness of conservation efforts. The project will require the development of several novel approaches and methodologies to handle the large amount of data involved. It will also offer an internship with our partner On The Edge Conservation on various activities around their work supporting conservation and policy. The student will be encouraged to develop their project in the direction that best suits their personal interests, including phylogenetics, large scale data mining, spatial analysis, and machine learning, but will most likely comprise a combination of the above.

灭绝不仅导致物种的丧失，也导致这些物种所代表的独特进化史的丧失，包括它们可能表现出的不可替代的特征。并不是所有物种在进化方面都是平等的；生命树上孤立的物种比最近进化的有几个近亲的物种代表了更独特的进化史。物种灭绝也降低了进化潜力，即一群有机体生存和适应未来环境变化的能力。大约有35万种维管植物，其中许多是占主导地位的生态系统组成部分，对无数其他物种的生存至关重要。据估计，40%的植物面临灭绝的危险，了解哪些是这些植物，它们面临哪些威胁，这不仅是保护这些物种的核心，也是保护整个生态系统的关键。在保护计划中应该优先考虑哪些物种和地区，这是一个反复出现的问题，但在相当大比例受到威胁的大型有机体群体中，这一问题更是如此。人们普遍认为有必要最大限度地保护生命之树。因此，基于进化历史的度量被提出为在保护中实现优先顺序的选择方法。基于系统发育多样性概念的各种方法已被提出。进化截然不同和全球濒危(EDGE)方法根据物种进化的独特性和面临的灭绝风险水平对物种进行排名。这种方法被伦敦动物学会采用，并适用于几个动物群体(www.edgeofexististence.org)，但还没有广泛应用于开花植物。这一博士项目将有助于正在进行的一项计划，该计划的主要目标是根据开花植物的进化独特性和全球濒危程度制定一份全球优先保护名单，并确定这些物种的密度最高的地方。该项目涉及编制所有被子植物物种的人工系统发育树，并根据保护评估直接或间接地估计每个物种面临的灭绝风险。半自动管道的开发将允许定期重新计算这些进化指标，并提供客观手段来监测保护工作的有效性。该项目将需要开发几种新的办法和方法来处理所涉及的大量数据。它还将为我们的边缘保护合作伙伴提供实习机会，围绕他们支持保护和政策的工作开展各种活动。学生将被鼓励朝着最符合他们个人兴趣的方向发展他们的项目，包括系统发育学、大规模数据挖掘、空间分析和机器学习，但很可能包括上述内容的组合。