Testing the ecophylogenetic hypothesis with species and spaces along ecological gradients

大多数陆地动物是节肢动物，其中大多数是昆虫，其中大多数是科学未知的。近年来，我们了解到，许多未命名的昆虫物种在物理上比想象的更小，更具地域性和/或宿主特异性。像这样的种间和种内的区域专门化(特别是那些与海拔和人为干扰共同变化的专门化)对于我们理解生物多样性的进化和维持至关重要。生物多样性是进化史和生态戏剧的结合，它们结合在一起，在生态“剧场”中挑选“演员”。然而，生物多样性不仅仅是物种的丰富性。生物多样性是进化和生态过程相互作用的复杂产物，因此，系统发育学是帮助理解群落的组装和维护的有用工具。

Most terrestrial animals are arthropods, most of these are insects and most of these are unknown to science. In recent years we have learned that many of the unnamed insect species are physically smaller and more regionally-restricted and/or host-specific than had been imagined. Inter- and intra-specific regional specialisations such as these (in particular those that co-vary with elevation and anthropogenic disturbance) are critical to our understanding of the evolution and maintenance of that biodiversity. Biodiversity is a combination of the evolutionary history and ecological dramas that combine to select the “actors” in the ecological “theater”. However, biodiversity is more than species richness. Biodiversity is a complex product of the interaction of evolutionary and ecological processes and so phylogenies are a useful tool to help understand the assembly and maintenance of communities.