This project examines continent-wide variation in the dimensions of biodiversity. New data are collected on the biodiversity and extinction risk of 2,500 Western Hemisphere reptile species. These data are combined with existing data for mammals, birds, and amphibians to measure and map the diversity of all 13,000 terrestrial vertebrate species of the Americas, in three dimensions. The first is phylo-temporal diversity, measuring the genetically distinctiveness of the species in an area. The second is compositional diversity, measuring which species occur in an area. And the third is trait diversity, measuring how the species in an area vary in place, food, time, and size niches. For each of the three dimensions, measures will reflect differences over space (dissimilarity). All data will be published in open access databases.
The research is important scientifically in representing novel, hemisphere-wide analysis of the genetic, taxonomic, and functional diversity of a major species group. This will allow determination of relationships among the three dimensions of biodiversity, and, by using the extinction risk data, prediction of impending changes in these relationships. These analyses have important practical implications, because the degree to which the dimensions covary will determine the efficiency possible in their conservation. Our PI institutions comprise four universities and the non-governmental organization NatureServe, the latter of which provides a channel for incorporation of results into conservation decisions, as well as providing real-world exposure to the two postdoctoral associates, and three graduate and approximately 40 undergraduate students, who the project will employ. The project includes significant international capacity building through Red List workshops in Brazil, Costa Rica, Ecuador, and Chile, along with research coordination meetings in Brazil. Both students and PIs will be traveling and collaborating with in-country scientists during these meetings, with support provided by the Office of International Science and Engineering.
