Adhirath Bollapragada
Publisher: University of Oxford
Published: 9 March 2014
Link: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/03/140309171648.htm
Summary:
Some conservation strategies assume that the evolutionary distances between species on a phylogenetic 'tree of life' (a branching diagram of species popularized by Charles Darwin) can be used to predict how diverse their biological features will be. These distances are then used to select which species to conserve in order to maximize interesting biological features -- such as potentially useful drug compounds and resilience to climate change. But a new analysis of data from 223 studies of animals, plants, and fungi, shows that methods based on such distances are often no better at conserving interesting biological features than picking species at random.
Connection:
This article connects to our unit of Evolution. There is a clear connection between the idea of a phylogeny tree and how evolution can be diagramed by a phylogeny tree. In this article, Oxford explains how the distances between organisms, or in this scenario trees, can explain the diverse biological features. However what is interesting about this article, that connects back to the unit of evolution, is how distances in organisms and the affect of climate can really have various or no distinct change in biological features that are interesting. This article has multiple places where it can be connected to the unit of Evolution, and it is very interesting.
Is there another type of diagram that represents the distance related to the conservation since this one could be considered "miss leading"?
ReplyDeleteWell, we learnt about the idea of analogous structures or variations. So, by taking these ideas in mind, the biodiversity that trees have can be related to the variation and different structures in them
DeleteWhat sorts of "interesting features" are conservationists trying to conserve?
ReplyDeleteConservationists are trying to conserve the different features of a tree. As we've learnt in previous units, trees, especially their sap, can preserve organisms. An example are the mosquitos and insects found from past eras. And, trees also live for an extremely long time, allowing conservationists to go back in time and find more about the Earth's history.
ReplyDelete