Annual Report 2010-11 - Global Invasive Species Programme - GISP

ioGENESISProviding an evolutionary framework forbiodiversity scienceCo-Chairs: D Faith, Australian Museum, Australia andT Yahara, Kyushu University, Japanwww.diversitas-international.org/biogenesisThe primary aim of bioGENESIS is tocatalyse the international communicationand integrated research that are necessaryto bring evolutionary approaches to bearon pressing issues related to biodiversityand human well-being.Three key papers were published by SCbioGENESISin 2010: an overview paper“Evolutionary biology in biodiversityscience, conservation, and policy: A callto action” (Hendry et al. 2010. Evolution);and two perspectives papers: “EvosystemServices: an evolutionary perspective onthe links between biodiversity and humanwell-being”(Faith et al. 2010. COSUST),and “Genetic diversity assessments in thecentury of genome science” (Yahara et al.2010. COSUST). See page 32.GEO Biodiversity ObservationNetwork (GEO BON)D Faith and T Yahara co-chair the WorkingGroup “Genetic/Phylogenetic Diversity” ofGEO BON and lead the development of thissection of the GEO BON implementationplan. This group is developing shorttermdeliverables such as reports onglobal status and trend of genetic andphylogenetic diversity.bioGENESIS is also strongly involved in thedevelopment of AP-BON, the regional nodeof GEO BON in the Asia-Pacific region.Eco-evolutionary approaches toclimate changeThe joint Eco-Evol initiative of bioGENESISand bioDISCOVERY initiative intends todevelop collaborative efforts to bridge thegaps between evolutionary and functionalecology in order to improve modelsprojecting changes in species distributionand abundance in response to climate /global change.The focus of the EcoEvol workshop held atKyushu University, Japan, in August 2010,was the genetic basis of species-levelresponses to climate in plants, especiallytrees, and on developing a predictiveunderstanding of how genetic variationin key functional traits will mediate theimpacts of climate change on speciesabundance and distribution.Annual conference of theAssociation of Tropical BiodiversityConservation(ATBC, Bali, July 2010)L Lohmann and A Hendry, SC-bioGENESIS,organised a symposium on evolutionaryperspectives for conservation biology.M Donoghue, former SC-bioGENESISChair, gave a plenary lecture entitled“Reconnecting ecology and evolution tocope with global change”.PeopleDr Makiko MIMURA joined DIVERSITAS asthe Science Officer for bioGENESIS (Kyushuoffice, Japan) in January 2010, thanksto funding from the Global Centers ofExcellence Program (COE, Japan).SECTION 1 I DIVERSITAS SCIENCE 11