Assessing the utility of conserving evolutionary history

Area of Science:

• Conservation Biology
• Biodiversity Science
• Evolutionary Biology

Background:

• Conserving evolutionary history is proposed as an efficient biodiversity strategy benefiting humans.
• Despite academic support, evolutionary history is seldom integrated into practical conservation efforts.
• Vague arguments and underexplored mechanisms hinder the implementation of evolutionary history conservation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To identify and evaluate arguments linking evolutionary history conservation to human benefits.
• To explicate the mechanisms behind these purported benefits.
• To assess the theoretical and empirical support for these links.

Main Methods:

• Literature review and synthesis of arguments connecting evolutionary history to human-centric benefits.
• Evaluation of theoretical underpinnings and empirical evidence for each argument.
• Analysis of the surrogacy relationship between evolutionary history and phenotypic diversity.

Main Results:

• The evidence linking evolutionary history conservation to human benefits is largely fragile after 25 years of research.
• Most arguments rely on evolutionary history as a proxy for phenotypic diversity, a relationship that varies in strength.
• While evolutionary history may capture unmeasured phenotypic diversity, direct evidence for ecosystem functioning, human preferences, and future benefits remains limited.

Conclusions:

• The assumption that evolutionary history effectively represents phenotypic diversity requires further validation.
• More direct research is needed to test the proposed benefits of conserving evolutionary history, such as enhanced ecosystem functioning and human well-being.
• Addressing scale mismatches between conservation actions and human benefit realization is crucial for future research.