Combining Phylogenetic Rarity with Species Distribution and Abundance for Conservation: Applying the 'Calculus of Biodiversity' in Canadian Butterflies
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University of Windsor Scholarship at UWindsor Electronic Theses and Dissertations Theses, Dissertations, and Major Papers 2006 Combining phylogenetic rarity with species distribution and abundance for conservation: Applying the 'calculus of biodiversity' in Canadian butterflies. Lisa A. Tulen University of Windsor Follow this and additional works at: https://scholar.uwindsor.ca/etd Recommended Citation Tulen, Lisa A., "Combining phylogenetic rarity with species distribution and abundance for conservation: Applying the 'calculus of biodiversity' in Canadian butterflies." (2006). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 1474. https://scholar.uwindsor.ca/etd/1474 This online database contains the full-text of PhD dissertations and Masters’ theses of University of Windsor students from 1954 forward. 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Tulen A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research through Biological Sciences in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Science at the University of Windsor Windsor, Ontario, Canada 2006 © 2006 Lisa A. Tulen Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 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ABSTRACT Estimates of evolutionary rarity are important adjuncts to traditional parameters of biological rarity (distribution and abundance). I develop a taxonomic-based method for estimating ranked phylogenetic-abundance, using z-scores from natural-log-transformed species numbers at the sub-family level, for the two major superfamilies of Lepidoptera: Hesperioidea and Papilionoidea. These five categories of phylo-abundance were combined with equivalent estimates of geographic distribution and abundance (‘geo rarity’), at both global and sub-national (regional) scales using the Canadian butterflies (N=293 species). The model for prioritization used all nine possible combinations, (including global and regional, phylogenetic and geographic abundance values) gave priority co-equally to global geo-rarity and phylo-rarity, and then secondarily to regional rarity. Papilio brevicauda (Papilionidae) is Canada’s overall highest priority for conservation (Group A). Evaluation of life history features revealed that wing span (increasing) dominates the discriminant function for global phylo-rarity and monophagy (presence) and sub-species numbers (decreasing) are discriminant functions for global geo-rarity. iii Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I am grateful to the members of my Advisory Committee, Drs. Phil Graniero, Peter Sale, Dave Dolan and my principal advisor Dr. Jon Lovett-Doust for their guidance and support. I would like to thank Dr. David M. Dolan for help in formulating the rarity index. I gratefully acknowledge the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, and Golder Associates for providing support in the form of an Industrial NSERC award. A warm thanks to my lab-mates and everyone in the biological sciences department, who have provided guidance and assistance beyond what I ever expected. A special thanks to Jeremy VanDerWal and Paolo Usseglio for their comments and helpful assistance. I would like to thank the Biological Sciences department staff, and especially Nancy Barkley, for all of their thoughtfulness and assistance. I would also like to thank the numerous friends and colleagues, especially Dave, Mary, Jon, Lesley, Jesse, and Rachelle for encouraging me to undertake graduate studies and their support thoughout. Thanks to everyone at the Citizens Environment Alliance for patiently waiting for their President to finally finish the thesis. I would like to acknowledge my family for encouragement and support, especially my mom and dad, my two sisters, Krissy and Teri and her kids, Ashley and Cody. Special appreciation goes to Alexandre Touchette whose encouragement, support, and friendship has been steadfast throughout. iv Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT............................................................................................................................iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS..................................................................................................iv LIST OF TABLES............................................................................................................... vii LIST OF FIGURES.............................................................................................................. ix TABLE OF APPENDICES...................................................................................................x INTRODUCTION................................................................................................................... 1 Available databases for butterflies ................................................................................... 6 Geographic rarity assessments at global and sub-national (regional) levels........................7 Taxonomic overview of Canadian butterflies......................................................................... 9 The COSEWIC process and consequences for Canadian butterfly conservation...............10 Thesis objective........................................................................................................................ 13 LITERATURE REVIEW .....................................................................................................14 Why preserve biodiversity?.................................................................................................... 14 Regional phylo-rarity.............................................................................................................. 20 Rabinowitz’s seven forms of rarity........................................................................................21 Local population size.............................................................................................................. 22 Habitat specificity....................................................................................................................22 Geographic range.....................................................................................................................23 COSEWIC................................................................................................................................ 24 METHODS.............................................................................................................................27 Estimating phylo-rarity ranks..................................................................................................28