Description

The Phylomaker series earlier packages have been widely used to create phylogenetic trees for ecological and biogeographic research. Despite the fact that these packages can be utilized to generate phylogenetic trees for any group of animals and plants for which mega trees are available, their primary focus is on producing phylogenetic trees for plants based on the mega trees that are provided by the packages. It is not easy to use these packages to create phylogenetic trees based on other mega trees. We present a brand-new tool called "U.PhyloMaker" and a straightforward R script for quickly and easily creating large phylogenetic trees for both animals and plants.

Effective Intrusion of Plants

All over the world, species are accidentally or intentionally moved out of their native range by humans. Natural barriers to dispersal have been broken down by organisms moving, providing new opportunities for species to spread outside of their native range. Over 13,000 species of vascular plants alone have successfully established self-sustaining populations without direct human intervention after being transported outside of their native range. Some of these naturalized plant species have spread widely and harmed the environment and human societies greatly. These invasive species have posed significant threats to ecosystem structure and function as well as biodiversity. The Introduction-Naturalization-Invasion (INI) continuum, which has three stages introduction, naturalization, and invasion, must be passed by a number of dispersal barriers as well as environmental and biotic filters for a non-native species to become an invasive species. In ecology and biogeography, one of the most important goals has become to comprehend the factors that influence the success of transitions across the INI continuum. Studies in the past have demonstrated that the underlying causes of species invasion can significantly differ between invasion stages. Invasiveness, on the other hand, is thought to be more dependent on the characteristics of the species, the interaction of non-native species with native species, and the physical environment of the recipient region. For instance, socioeconomic factors are thought to be crucial for introduction and naturalization. Large numbers of the qualities credited to effective intrusion of plants, for example, development structures, fertilization and dispersal types, are firmly connected with specific taxa. However, the ecological characteristics that favor invasion success for many plant groups are poorly understood. Measurement of relevant functional traits for a large number of species is frequently impractical, despite the fact that key correlates of invasion success have been identified for certain species. Phylogenies can be used to fill in the gaps in knowledge about traits because species with shared ancestry are ecologically more similar to one another than to distantly related species, and previous research has demonstrated that many functional traits are phylogenetically conserved.

Geographic Patterns of Diversity

In addition to taxonomic diversity, the current composition of a region's species reflects the interaction between ecological and evolutionary processes; It is important to pay attention to how phylogenetic diversity changes as the environment changes. Taxonomic dissimilarity metrics can be used to measure taxonomic diversity and offer insight into the degree to which species belong to distinct communities and overlap with one another. However, the phylogenetic relationship between species in these communities is not taken into account by this information. Contrasted and ordered β-variety, phylogenetic β- variety is measured with phylogeny-based uniqueness measurements and can all the more really recognize local area closeness with regards to transformative history, especially when central networks share no species with the most elevated ordered difference yet share similar genera or families. Taxonomic and phylogenetic comparisons of community diversity are therefore necessary for a comprehensive comprehension of the geographic patterns of diversity and its connection to environmental variables. At the global, continental, and regional scales, extensive research has been conducted on the environmental correlates of taxonomic or phylogenetic diversity patterns and their geographic patterns for terrestrial organisms. Taxonomic diversity patterns vary greatly across diverse biogeographic regions. According to some studies, a species' geographic range and niche width increase with latitude, and taxonomic diversity follows a latitudinal gradient, with high diversity in tropical areas and low diversity in temperate ones. Other studies show that some mountains, like the Andes, Rocky Mountains, and Himalayas have more taxonomic diversity than their neighbors. Although the values of phylogenetic diversity are consistently lower than those of taxonomic diversity across the entire research scale, it has been demonstrated that geographic patterns of phylogenetic diversity are in line with patterns of taxonomic diversity. For instance, Qian compared the taxonomic and phylogenetic diversity of the world's major terrestrial vertebrates and found that taxonomic diversity at the species level was 1.24 times higher than phylogenetic diversity at the genus and family levels, respectively. According to Whittaker diversity generally reflects the alteration of species composition on the environmental gradient over vast geographic scales. The range of a species' distribution is limited by its capacity for dispersal and environmental adaptability; As a result, it could be anticipated that -diversity has a positive correlation with the differences in environmental conditions and geographical distance between regions. Past examinations have found that ecological contrasts assume a more significant part than geographic distances in molding examples of β-variety for plants in North America, while geographic distances are more significant for β-variety examples of freshwater fish collections in a similar mainland. Depending on the habit, living environment, and mode of distribution of the organisms, geographical and environmental differences may shape -diversity in varying degrees. The most likely scenario is that the environmental differences and geographic distances have a strong and consistent correlation; consequently, the most likely scenario is that the two factors influence the geographic patterns of diversity.