Phylolink: phylogenetically-based profiling, visualisations and metrics for biodiversity.

SUMMARY: Phylolink is a research collaboration toolkit through which biodiversity can be explored from a phylogenetic perspective. It is an update of PhyloJiVE that has been integrated into the framework of the Atlas of Living Australia, including its spatial portal. Phylolink connects phylogenetic tree nodes with species occurrence records, environmental data, and species trait information. Features new to Phylolink allow users to upload and download spatial datasets, store files and link to the ALA spatial portal, improve graphics and provide the novel ability to analyze environmental attributes of species and clades distributions. Species richness and phylogenetic diversity comparisons can be made among geographic areas. The result is a powerful way of combining data to generate flexible and customizable visualizations, profiles and metrics for biodiversity. AVAILABILITY AND IMPLEMENTATION: Phylolink is available at the Atlas of Living Australia, http://phylolink.ala.org.au/. It works on any browser and users can select from a range of stored phylogenetic trees and spatial datasets, or upload their own.

PhyloJIVE: Integrating biodiversity data with the Tree of Life.

MOTIVATION: Rich collections of biodiversity information such as spatial distributions, species descriptions and trait data are now synthesized in publicly available online sources such as GBIF. Also phylogenetic knowledge now provides a sound understanding of the origin of organisms and their place in the tree of life. We demonstrate with PhyloJIVE that any phylogenetic tree can be linked to online biodiversity data in the browser. This evolutionary view of biodiversity data is demonstrated in a case study that suggests that this approach may be useful to scientists and non-experts users.