My research is about the spatial measurement of biodiversity.  The main reasons for doing this are to identify important places for biodiversity conservation and to shed light on the spatial component of evolution.   While traditional measures of biodiversity use species as their basic unit, measures of phylogenetic diversity take account of the evolutionary relationships between taxa. They use measures of evolutionary difference based on genetic or morphological data, to reflect the unique contribution of each species to overall diversity.

My research uses phylogenies for a diverse selection of Australian plant and animal taxa, combined with continent wide observation datasets. It applies and builds on existing diversity measures to develop robust spatial measures suitable for wider application, and to investigate the geography of evolutionary processes within and between the different taxon groups.   For each taxon group (such as a family or genus) I will map an estimate of phylogenetic diversity across Australia. I will look for patterns in phylogenetic diversity within and between taxonomic groups, and seek to quantify and minimise sources of uncertainty in the spatial measurement of phylogenetic diversity.   My research is supported by an ARC Linkage Grant titled: What is the spatial and environmental distribution of phylogenetic diversity in the Australian biota? The industry partner is the Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage & the Arts.   Applications: conservation planning, evolutionary biology

• Australian Natural Heritage Assessment Tool - used in the Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage & the Arts to map patterns of endemism and species richness in the Australian biota, and to produce regional biodiversity reports.
• Biodiversity Analysis Tool - a web-based tool for biogeographic analysis of online specimen collections
• Biodiverse - a web based research tool for biogeographic analysis of specimen collections, developed in BEES

Rosauer D, Laffan S, Crisp M, Donnellan S, Cook L (in press) Phylogenetic endemism: a new approach for identifying geographical concentrations of evolutionary history. Molecular Ecology.

 

Lemckert F, Rosauer D, Slatyer C (2009) A comparison of Australia's anuran records against the reserve system. Biodiversity and Conservation, 18, 1233-1246. [link]

 

Cameron Slatyer, Dan Rosauer, & Frank Lemckert (2007) An assessment of endemism and species richness patterns in the Australian Anura. Journal of Biogeography, 34, 583-596.[PDF]

 

Cameron Slatyer, Winston Ponder, Dan Rosauer & Lyndell Davis (2007) Between a rock and a dry place: land snails in arid Australia. In Animals of arid Australia : out on their own? Eds. Chris Dickman, Daniel Lunney & Shelley Burgin. Royal Zoological Society of New South Wales, Mossman, New South Wales.

Dan Rosauer (2000) Systematic Techniques to Locate Reserves for Nature Conservation, Thesis for Master of Environmental Science, Australian National University.

• October 2008 - Biodiversity Information Standards (TDWG) Annual Conference - Perth, Australia. Linking phylogenetic trees, taxonomy & geography to map phylogeography using Biodiverse - Dan Rosauer and Shawn Laffan. [PPT] [SWF with audio]
• June 2007 - Evolution 2007 - Christchurch, New Zealand. Towards practical phylogenetic diversity analyses for conservation biologists - Dan Rosauer & Shawn Laffan.
• March 2006 - International Workshop on the Interoperability of Biological Information Resources - Tokyo, Japan. Mapping Biogeographic Patterns from Species Occurrence Data - the Biodiversity Analysis Tool - Dan Rosauer and Bryn Honeyman
• October 2005 - Global Biodiversity Information Facility, Governing Board Meeting - Stockholm, Sweden. Demonstration Project: The Biodiversity Analysis Tool - Dan Rosauer and Bryn Honeyman

Based at: the Centre for Plant Biodiversity Research
CSIRO Plant Industry, Canberra
Tel: +61 (02) 6246 5117
Email: dan.rosauer@csiro.au