Their study demonstrated that the plots with the greatest evolutionary diversity were a third more productive compared to areas with the least evolutionary diversity. The finding suggests that evolutionary diversity should be an important consideration when identifying priority areas for conservation. Study lead author Fernanda Coelho from the School of Geography at Leeds said: “Understanding how biodiversity affects productivity in tropical forests is important because it allows us to understand how conservation strategies can best be designed to maximize protection of species and the services that these ecosystems provide. “Our results indicate that we should include evolutionary history in conservation priorities — because ecosystem function may be higher in areas where species come from right across the tree of life’.
