Phylogenetic diversity in conservation: why we should proceed with care.

Marcel Cardillo (Australian National University); Alex Skeels (Australian National University).

Phylogenetic diversity (PD) connects systematics with conservation, by using phylogenetic branch lengths to quantify an assemblage’s “evolutionary history”, which is widely regarded as worthy of protection. Although PD is still rarely used in practical conservation decision making, it is becoming more visible in the international policy arena, so it is important for policymakers to be aware of its limitations. Here we give an overview of the sensitivity of PD and downstream spatial analyses to methods and assumptions in phylogenetic inference, with some examples from our current work on phylogenomics of Grevilleoideae.