Phylogeny and Conservation

[Mark Garland]

I appreciate the viewpoint of Luis Muniz that phylogeny is not a "luxury" in
conservation biology, but the fact is we can't save even small chunks of the
natural world (in Florida, anyway) if we wait for phylogenetic analyses (as
John Shuey and Harvey Ballard said in different ways).

And I didn't mean to imply that Florida's conservation program doesn't use all
available information--and God knows we need more.  But even if we had great
information on the descent of every organism in the state, where would that
get us?  We're not trying to buy land along the Apalachicola River because
Torreya taxifolia (Florida torreya tree) is a relict--we're trying to save the
unique hardwood forests it grows in.

Phylogeny may come into play when deciding how much money to spend on
preserving the habitat of rare subspecies or populations versus endemic
species--for example, how much money are we going to spend on the Florida
panther, a subspecies of cougar, or the Key deer, a subspecies of whitetail
deer, when extremely restricted species of plants and animals may go extinct
on the Lake Wales Ridge?  Otherwise, phylogeny is not the most practical tool
we have.

This is an "implementation" viewpoint, and a habitat-preservation
viewpoint--take it for what it's worth.  All our studies of what to preserve
in Florida boil down to identifying the largest, highest-quality, and most
distinctive tracts of land.  If we don't preserve these areas, folks will be
doing their phylogenetic analyses in zoos and botanical gardens.

A couple of references on Florida's program:

Cox, J., R. Kautz, M. MacLaughlin, and T. Gilbert.  1994.  Closing the gaps in
Florida's Wildlife habitat conservation system.  Tallahassee. (May still be
available from:  Office of Environmental Services, Florida Game and Fresh
Water Fish Commission, 620 South Meridian Street, Tallahassee, Florida
32399-1600.)

Science 269:318-320. 1995--a summary of the "gap analysis" above.

Mark A. Garland
Office of Environmental Services
Florida Department of Environmental Protection
3900 Commonwealth Boulevard, Mail Station 140
Tallahassee, Florida 32399-3000