SYMP 23-1
The macroecology of botanical diversity: History, new insights and the central informatics barriers

Friday, August 14, 2015: 8:00 AM
308, Baltimore Convention Center
Brian J. Enquist, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ
Brad Boyle, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Department, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ
Brody Sandel, Aarhus University, Denmark
John C. Donoghue II, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ
Jim Regetz, National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis, University of California Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA
Irena Simova, Center for Theoretical Study, Charles University in Prague and Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Praha, Czech Republic
Jens Svenning, Department of Bioscience, Ecoinformatics and Biodiversity Group, Aarhus, Denmark
Brian J. McGill, School of Biology and Ecology / Mitchell Center for Sustainability Solutions/Mitchell Center for Sustainability Solutions, University of Maine, Orono, ME
Robert K. Peet, Biology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC
Peter Jorgensen, Research Division, Missouri Botanical Garden, St. Louis, MO
Barbara Thiers, William and Lynda Steere Herbarium, The New York Botanical Garden, Bronx, NY, NY
Mark Schildhauer, National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis, University of California Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA
Stephen Smith, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI
Cody Hinchliff, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI
Cyrille Violle, Centre d'Ecologie Fonctionnelle et Evolutive, CNRS, Montpellier, France
Nich Spencer, Landcare Research, Lincoln, New Zealand
Naia Morueta-Holme, Integrative Biology, University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, CA
Aaron Marcuse-Kubitza, National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis, Santa Barbara
Nathan J. B. Kraft, Department of Biology, University of Maryland, College Park, MD
Jeffrey E. Ott, Department of Biology, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC
Martha Narro, The iPlant Collaborative, Tucson, AZ
Susan K. Wiser, Landcare Research, Lincoln, New Zealand
Background/Question/Methods

For many questions in comparative biology and biodiversity science it is increasingly necessary to integrate heterogeneous sources of biological information across enormous geographic, temporal, and taxonomic scales. The informatics revolution, has transformed many parts of science. While many fields have embraced Big Data, ecology has historically lagged. Nonetheless, the culture of data sharing and use in ecology and the arrival of new data infrastructure is quickly transforming ecology. Further, the nature of how ecology is conducting science will continue to embrace large heterogeneous data sources. The problem has been that the nature of biodiversity data presents several unique hurdles that limit the advance of biodiversity science. To overcome these limitations we present a general workflow to standardize and integrate the world’s ecological and collection databases. Focusing on plants in the Americas, we use this workflow to generate for the first time: (i) species range maps for ~100,000 species; (ii) a standardized species list and multi-gene phylogeny for all New World species; (iii) continental-scale taxonomic, phylogenetic, diversity, and trait maps. 

Results/Conclusions

These products allow us to quantify botanical diversity at continental scales and assess several differing hypotheses for the origin and maintenance of diversity gradients. We show that broad-scale diversity patterns are characterized by an inverse relationship between phylogenetic diversity and taxonomic diversity and to visualize how continuous variation in a key functional trait shifts across continental scales. Together, our results provide a basis to assess long-standing hypotheses for the origin of diversity gradients and the drivers of functional trait composition and diversity. Further, the importance of an integrated data pool from heterogenious data sources allow us to assess and improve our knowledge of the diversity and distribution of plant species.