Conservation prioritization and climate change impacts on the phylogenetic diversity of endemic rainforest flora and fauna
Evaluating the conservation importance of areas and impacts of threats on these areas is fundamental component of systematic conservation planning. Although it is an important component of biodiversity, phylogenetic diversity is often not included in these assessments. Here we prioritize montane areas for both species and phylogenetic diversity while considering potential impacts of anthropogenic climate change. First we assess the relative conservation value of montane areas in the Australian Wet Tropics using both species and phylogenetic diversity information for four taxon groups: vertebrates, insects, snails and plants. We then estimate potential climate change impacts on species and phylogenetic diversity. We prioritized areas based upon several common measures of conservation value and assessed congruence between the methods across all taxon groups for both species and phylogenetic information. Although there were some similarities, the methods tended to identify different areas as being important for conservation depending on the metric used. Conservation priority areas identified using phylogenetic diversity for plants and vertebrates tended to be different from areas identified by species information for those taxa. The study region is projected to experience significant threats to species and phylogenetic diversity with conservative estimates of future climate warming. Areas in the southern Wet Tropics are predicted to experience greater loss of species and phylogenetic diversity, although the entire region will likely be affected. Our analysis demonstrates how phylogenetic diversity information can be included in systematic conservation planning to prioritize areas and assess threats to biodiversity.