Photo by Marc Cadotte
Plots from a phylogenetic diversity manipulation of tall grass prairie plants outside of Toronto, Canada.
CONSIDERING PHYLOGENETIC RELATIONSHIPS IN PLANNING AND MONITORING ECOLOGICAL RESTORATION PROJECTS
Phylogeny—the evolutionary history of organisms—has been shown to be a reliable predictor of how organisms interact with each other and their environment. While the implications of phylogeny for conservation have been researched and debated, the implications of phylogeny for restoration have rarely been discussed. Hipp et al. (p. 647) present the case that phylogenetic relationships should be considered in planning and monitoring the progress of ecological restoration projects and press for the integration of basic research in systematics and evolutionary biology with the practice of ecological restoration.
Am. J. Bot. 102(5): 647, 2015 doi:10.3732/ajb.1500119
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