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Biodiversity synthesis across the green branches of the tree of life

Nature Plants volume 5, pages 11–13 (2019)Cite this article

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Abstract

Advances in biodiversity science, coupled with new technologies and big data platforms, are expanding our ability to explore and understand the natural world. For the first time, biologists can link data from growing repositories and computational approaches to better integrate plant evolution and ecology at the broadest extents. The emerging synthesis is reshaping our views of plant diversification and guiding new approaches to conservation.

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Fig. 1: A diagram showing how global biodiversity data resources can be used to develop synthetic analyses to better understand the pattern and processes behind the assembly of modern-day plant communities.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank J. Cavender-Bares for helpful comments and commentary. This work was supported in part by the US National Science Foundation (grant nos. EF-1115210, DBI-1547229, DBI-1458640, DEB-1442280 and DEB-1208809), the US Department of Energy (grant no. DE-SC0018247), and a seed grant from the University of Florida Biodiversity and Informatics Institutes.

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Author notes

  1. These authors contributed equally: Julie M. Allen, Ryan A. Folk.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Florida Museum of Natural History, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA

    Julie M. Allen, Ryan A. Folk, Pamela S. Soltis, Douglas E. Soltis & Robert P. Guralnick

  2. Biology Department, University of Nevada, Reno, NV, USA

    Julie M. Allen

  3. Genetics Institute, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA

    Pamela S. Soltis, Douglas E. Soltis & Robert P. Guralnick

  4. Biodiversity Institute, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA

    Pamela S. Soltis, Douglas E. Soltis & Robert P. Guralnick

  5. Department of Biology, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA

    Douglas E. Soltis

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All authors contributed in writing the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Douglas E. Soltis or Robert P. Guralnick.

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Allen, J.M., Folk, R.A., Soltis, P.S. et al. Biodiversity synthesis across the green branches of the tree of life. Nature Plants 5, 11–13 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41477-018-0322-7

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