Redding David W, Mooers Arne Ø
Simon Fraser University, Burnaby BC V5A 1S6, Canada.
Conserv Biol. 2006 Dec;20(6):1670-8. doi: 10.1111/j.1523-1739.2006.00555.x.
Conservation prioritization is dominated by the threat status of candidate species. However, species differ markedly in the shared genetic information they embody, and this information is not taken into account if species are prioritized by threat status alone. We developed a system of prioritization that incorporates both threat status and genetic information and applied it to 9546 species of birds worldwide. We devised a simple measure of a species' genetic value that takes into account the shape of the entire taxonomic tree of birds. This measure approximates the evolutionary history that each species embodies and sums to the phylogenetic diversity of the entire taxonomic tree. We then combined this genetic value with each species' probability of extinction to create a species-specific measure of expected loss of genetic information. The application of our methods to the world's avifauna showed that ranking species by expected loss of genetic information may help preserve bird evolutionary history by upgrading those threatened species with fewer close relatives. We recommend developing a mechanism to incorporate a species' genetic value into the prioritization framework.
保护优先级主要由候选物种的受威胁状况决定。然而，物种所包含的共享遗传信息存在显著差异，如果仅根据受威胁状况对物种进行优先级排序，这些信息将不会被考虑在内。我们开发了一种将受威胁状况和遗传信息都纳入考量的优先级排序系统，并将其应用于全球9546种鸟类。我们设计了一种简单的衡量物种遗传价值的方法，该方法考虑了鸟类整个分类树的形态。这种衡量方法近似于每个物种所体现的进化历史，并累加为整个分类树的系统发育多样性。然后，我们将这种遗传价值与每个物种的灭绝概率相结合，以创建一个针对特定物种的遗传信息预期损失衡量指标。我们的方法应用于世界鸟类区系表明，根据遗传信息预期损失对物种进行排名，可能有助于通过提升那些近亲较少的受威胁物种的优先级来保护鸟类的进化历史。我们建议建立一种机制，将物种的遗传价值纳入优先级排序框架。
