title: Incorporating evolutionary history into conservation planning in biodiversity hotspots.
abstract: There is increased evidence that incorporating evolutionary history directly in conservation actions is beneficial, particularly given the likelihood that extinction is not random and that phylogenetic diversity (PD) is lost at higher rates than species diversity. This evidence is even more compelling in biodiversity hotspots, such as Madagascar, where less than 10% of the original vegetation remains. Here, we use the Leguminosae, an ecologically and economically important plant family, and a combination of phylogenetics and species distribution modelling, to assess biodiversity patterns and identify regions, coevolutionary processes and ecological factors that are important in shaping this diversity, especially during the Quaternary. We show evidence that species distribution and community PD are predicted by watershed boundaries, which enable the identification of a network of refugia and dispersal corridors that were perhaps important for maintaining community integrity during past climate change. Phylogenetically clustered communities are found in the southwest of the island at low elevation and share a suite of morphological characters (especially fruit morphology) indicative of coevolution with their main dispersers, the extinct and extant lemurs. Phylogenetically over-dispersed communities are found along the eastern coast at sea level and may have resulted from many independent dispersal events from the drier and more seasonal regions of Madagascar.
authors.affiliation: Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Richmond, Surrey TW9 3AB, UK sven.buerki@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Sven
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Buerki
authors.affiliation: Missouri Botanical Garden, PO Box 299, St Louis, MO 63166-0299, USA Conservatoire et Jardin botaniques de la ville de Genève, ch. de l'Impératrice 1, 1292 Chambésy, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Martin W
authors.initials: MW
authors.lastname: Callmander
authors.affiliation: Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Richmond, Surrey TW9 3AB, UK.
authors.forename: Steven
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Bachman
authors.affiliation: Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Richmond, Surrey TW9 3AB, UK.
authors.forename: Justin
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Moat
authors.affiliation: Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle de Paris (UMR 7205), Case Postale 39, 57 rue Cuvier, 75231 05 CEDEX, Paris, France.
authors.forename: Jean-Noël
authors.initials: JN
authors.lastname: Labat
authors.affiliation: Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Richmond, Surrey TW9 3AB, UK.
authors.forename: Félix
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Forest
mesh_terms: D001483:Base Sequence; D044822:Biodiversity; D005075:Biological Evolution; D016000:Cluster Analysis; D019295:Computational Biology; D003247:Conservation of Natural Resources / Q000379:methods*; D017753:Ecosystem; D007887:Fabaceae / Q000235:genetics* / Q000502:physiology; D005843:Geography; D008270:Madagascar; D008954:Models, Biological; D008957:Models, Genetic; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010802:Phylogeny; D016415:Sequence Alignment
keywords: Leguminosae; Madagascar; extinction; megafauna; phylogenetic diversity