Phylogeny-based measurements at global and regional scales

Abstract

The purpose of this chapter is to describe a number of methodological issues, considerations and opportunities when applying phylogeny-based measures at regional to global scales, a process recently labelled as "spatial phylogenetics". These are divided into four sections: (1) the nature of the source data; (2) issues and effects of spatial aggregation; (3) some useful properties of phylogenetic diversity, endemism and rarity across landscapes; and (4) how to develop analysis tools that will complete in reasonable time for large data sets. The focus of the discussion is on measures of phylogenetic diversity, endemism and rarity, but the issues, considerations and opportunities raised have general application to other related indices across landscape and global scales.