Publications by authors named "P E Phillipson"
Madagascar's unique biota is heavily affected by human activity and is under intense threat. Here, we review the current state of knowledge on the conservation status of Madagascar's terrestrial and freshwater biodiversity by presenting data and analyses on documented and predicted species-level conservation statuses, the most prevalent and relevant threats, ex situ collections and programs, and the coverage and comprehensiveness of protected areas. The existing terrestrial protected area network in Madagascar covers 10.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFArticle Synopsis
- Madagascar is home to a hyperdiverse array of species, many of which are endemic, meaning they are found nowhere else in the world.
- Recent research has led to the discovery of many new species, but significant gaps remain in our knowledge, especially concerning fungi and most invertebrates.
- The island's humid forests are vital for biodiversity, but other ecosystems like the Central Highlands and spiny forest also hold important species, making ongoing research essential for conservation and understanding of Madagascar’s unique environment.
We compare the numbers of vascular plant species in the three major tropical areas. The Afrotropical Region (Africa south of the Sahara Desert plus Madagascar), roughly equal in size to the Latin American Region (Mexico southward), has only 56,451 recorded species (about 170 being added annually), as compared with 118,308 recorded species (about 750 being added annually) in Latin America. Southeast Asia, only a quarter the size of the other two tropical areas, has approximately 50,000 recorded species, with an average of 364 being added annually.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPremise: Microsatellite markers were developed for (Velloziaceae), a species endemic to the Malagasy inselbergs, to explore the impact of its island-like distribution on genetic diversity and gene flow.
Methods And Results: A total of 7110 perfect microsatellite loci were recovered by shotgun sequencing on an Illumina MiSeq platform. Primer pairs were designed for 40 arbitrarily selected loci.