Genetic distances and the setting of conservation priorities

Abstract

The authors develop the Genetic Diversity (GD) approach to assess the likely biodiversity of reserves using indicator groups. This approach seeks to maximise the preservation of genetic information, and hence requires distances based on divergence and not substitutions. A product formula enables estimation of the GD of the complete set of species and of all subsets implied by possible reserve systems. The bootstrap is suggested as a means of estimating the confidence limits of GD-based priorities. In an example using mitochondrial DNA data from bower birds Ptilonorhynchidae the order of priorities appeared to be more robust than might have been expected. -from Authors