Data from: Conservation action based on threatened species capture taxonomic and phylogenetic richness in breeding and wintering populations of Central Asian birds

Although phylogenetic diversity has been suggested to be relevant from a
conservation point of view, its role is still limited in applied nature
conservation. Recently, the practice of investing conservation resources
based on threatened species was identified as a reason for the slow
integration of phylogenetic diversity in nature conservation planning. One
of the main arguments is based on the observation that threatened species
are not evenly distributed over the phylogenetic tree. However this
argument seems to dismiss the fact that conservation action is a spatially
explicit process, and even if threatened species are not evenly
distributed over the phylogenetic tree, the occurrence of threatened
species could still indicate areas with above average phylogenetic
diversity and consequently could protect phylogenetic diversity. Here we
aim to study the selection of important bird areas in Central Asia, which
were nominated largely based on the presence of threatened bird species.
We show that although threatened species occurring in Central Asia do not
capture phylogenetically more distinct species than expected by chance,
the current spatially explicit conservation approach of selecting
important bird areas covers above average taxonomic and phylogenetic
diversity of breeding and wintering birds. We conclude that the spatially
explicit processes of conservation actions need to be considered in the
current discussion of whether new prioritization methods are needed to
complement conservation action based on threatened species.