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Build an Ark? Biologists Discuss Conservation Prioritization

posted by chromas on Tuesday July 24 2018, @12:00AM   
from the NOAA dept.

Phoenix666 writes:

Phys.org:

[C]onservation biologists often use species' evolutionary history – their phylogeny – to identify groups of species to save."

This idea is based on the assumption that preserving phylogenetic diversity among species preserves more functional diversity than selecting species to preserve by chance. Functional diversity is important, Pearse says, because it drives ecosystem health and productivity.

"Yet measuring the effectiveness of functional diversity is difficult," he says. "So using phylogenetic diversity as a surrogate for functional diversity has made conservation biology much easier and more effective."

Building an ark to help the Earth weather ecosystem collapse has become a recurrent element of science fiction. How best would one go about it in practice?

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Original Submission

• Re:Obviously... (Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 24 2018, @01:10PM

  by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 24 2018, @01:10PM (#711692)

  So, rats. Granted, I don't know what they taste like, but they are certainly quite easy to breed and raise. Actually it's hard to prevent them from breeding …

  Parent

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