title: Split diversity in constrained conservation prioritization using integer linear programming.
abstract: Phylogenetic diversity (PD) is a measure of biodiversity based on the evolutionary history of species. Here, we discuss several optimization problems related to the use of PD, and the more general measure split diversity (SD), in conservation prioritization.Depending on the conservation goal and the information available about species, one can construct optimization routines that incorporate various conservation constraints. We demonstrate how this information can be used to select sets of species for conservation action. Specifically, we discuss the use of species' geographic distributions, the choice of candidates under economic pressure, and the use of predator-prey interactions between the species in a community to define viability constraints.Despite such optimization problems falling into the area of NP hard problems, it is possible to solve them in a reasonable amount of time using integer programming. We apply integer linear programming to a variety of models for conservation prioritization that incorporate the SD measure.We exemplarily show the results for two data sets: the Cape region of South Africa and a Caribbean coral reef community. Finally, we provide user-friendly software at http://www.cibiv.at/software/pda.
authors.affiliation: Center for Integrative Bioinformatics Vienna, Max F. Perutz Laboratories, University of Vienna, Medical University Vienna Vienna, Austria ; Bioinformatics and Computational Biology, Faculty of Computer Science, University of Vienna Vienna, Austria.
authors.forename: Olga
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Chernomor
authors.affiliation: Center for Integrative Bioinformatics Vienna, Max F. Perutz Laboratories, University of Vienna, Medical University Vienna Vienna, Austria.
authors.forename: Bui Quang
authors.initials: BQ
authors.lastname: Minh
authors.affiliation: Jodrell Laboratory, Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, Richmond, UK.
authors.forename: Félix
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Forest
authors.affiliation: Department of Statistics, School of Biological Sciences, University of Auckland Auckland, New Zealand.
authors.forename: Steffen
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Klaere
authors.affiliation: Department of Zoology, University of Otago Dunedin, New Zealand.
authors.forename: Travis
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Ingram
authors.affiliation: Theory and Applications of Algorithms, Faculty of Computer Science, University of Vienna Vienna, Austria.
authors.forename: Monika
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Henzinger
authors.affiliation: Center for Integrative Bioinformatics Vienna, Max F. Perutz Laboratories, University of Vienna, Medical University Vienna Vienna, Austria ; Bioinformatics and Computational Biology, Faculty of Computer Science, University of Vienna Vienna, Austria.
authors.forename: Arndt
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: von Haeseler
keywords: conservation biology; phylogenetic diversity; split diversity