Barnabas Daru

All Publications

• Tracking hidden dimensions of plant biogeography from herbaria. The New phytologist Daru, B. H. 2025

  Abstract

  Plants are diverse, but investigating their ecology and evolution in nature across geographic and temporal scales to predict how species will respond to global change is challenging. With their geographic and temporal breadth, herbarium data provide physical evidence of the existence of a species in a place and time. The remarkable size of herbarium collections along with growing digitization efforts around the world and the possibility of extracting functional traits and geographic data from preserved plant specimens makes them invaluable resources for advancing our understanding of changing species distributions over time, functional biogeography, and conserving plant communities. Here, I synthesize core aspects of plant biogeography that can be gleaned from herbaria along changing distributions, attributes (functional biogeography), and conservation biogeography across the globe. I advocate for a collaborative, multisite, and multispecies research to harness the full potential of these collections while addressing the inherent challenges of using herbarium data for biogeography and macroecological investigations. Ultimately, these data present untapped resources and opportunities to enable predictions of plant species' responses to global change and inform effective conservation planning.

  View details for DOI 10.1111/nph.70002

  View details for PubMedID 39953672

• The changing biodiversity of the Arctic flora in the Anthropocene. American journal of botany Markley, P. T., Gross, C. P., Daru, B. H. 2025: e16466

  Abstract

  The plants of the circumpolar Arctic occupy a dynamic system that has been shaped by glacial cycles and climate change on evolutionary timescales. Yet rapid climatic change can compromise the floristic diversity of the tundra, and the ecological and evolutionary changes in the Arctic from anthropogenic forces remain understudied. In this review, we synthesize knowledge of Arctic floral biodiversity across the entirety of the region within the context of its climatic history. We present critical gaps and challenges in modeling and documenting the consequences of anthropogenic changes for Arctic flora, informed by data from the Late Quaternary (~20 ka). We found that previous forecasts of Arctic plant responses to climate change indicate widespread reductions in habitable area with increasing shrub growth and abundance as a function of annual temperature increase. Such shifts in the distribution and composition of extant Arctic flora will likely increase with global climate through changes to the carbon cycle, necessitating a unified global effort in conserving these plants. More data and research on the continuity of tundra communities are needed to firmly assess the risk climate change poses to the Arctic.

  View details for DOI 10.1002/ajb2.16466

  View details for PubMedID 39887966

• A global biogeographic regionalization for butterflies. Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences Gross, C. P., Wright, A. M., Daru, B. H. 2025; 380 (1917): 20230211

  Abstract

  The partitioning of global biodiversity into biogeographic regions is critical for understanding the impacts of global-scale ecological and evolutionary processes on species assemblages as well as prioritizing areas for conservation. However, the lack of globally comprehensive data on species distributions precludes fine-scale estimation of biogeographical regionalization for numerous taxa of ecological, economic and conservation interest. Using a recently published phylogeny and novel curated native range maps for over 10 000 species of butterflies around the world, we delineated biogeographic regions for the world's butterflies using phylogenetic dissimilarity. We uncovered 19 distinct phylogenetically delimited regions (phyloregions) nested within 6 realms. Regional boundaries were predicted by spatial turnover in modern-day temperature and precipitation seasonality, but historical climate change also left a pronounced fingerprint on deeper- (realm-) level boundaries. We use a culturally and ecologically important group of insects to expand our understanding of how historical and contemporary factors drive the distribution of organismal lineages on the Earth. As insects and global biodiversity more generally face unprecedented challenges from anthropogenic factors, our research provides the groundwork for prioritizing regions and taxa for conservation, especially with the goal of preserving the legacies of our biosphere's evolutionary history.This article is part of the discussion meeting issue 'Bending the curve towards nature recovery: building on Georgina Mace's legacy for a biodiverse future'.

  View details for DOI 10.1098/rstb.2023.0211

  View details for PubMedID 39780589

• A global database of butterfly species native distributions. Ecology Daru, B. H. 2024: e4462

  Abstract

  Butterflies represent a diverse group of insects, playing key ecosystem roles such as pollination and their larval form engage in herbivory. Despite their importance, comprehensive global distribution data for butterfly species are lacking. This lack of comprehensive global data has hindered many large-scale questions in ecology, evolutionary biology, and conservation at the regional and global scales. Here, I use an integrative workflow that combines occurrence records, alpha hull polygons, species' dispersal capacity, and natural habitat and environmental variables within a framework of species distribution models to generate species-level native distributions for butterflies at a global scale in the contemporary period. The database releases native range maps for 10,372 extant species of butterflies at a spatial grain resolution of 5 arcmin (~10 km). This database has the potential to allow unprecedented large-scale analyses in ecology, biogeography, and conservation of butterflies. The maps are available in the WGS84 coordinate reference system (EPSG:4326 code) and stored as vector polygons in the GEOPACKAGE format for maximum compression, allowing easy data manipulation using a standard computer. I additionally provide each species' spatial raster. All maps and R scripts are open access and available for download in Dryad and Zenodo, respectively, and are guided by FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable) data principles. By making these data available to the scientific community, I aim to advance the sharing of biological data to stimulate more comprehensive research in ecology, biogeography, and conservation of butterflies.

  View details for DOI 10.1002/ecy.4462

  View details for PubMedID 39584487

• Climate change alters the future of natural floristic regions of deep evolutionary origins. Nature communications Minev-Benzecry, S., Daru, B. H. 2024; 15 (1): 9474

  Abstract

  Biogeographic regions reflect the organization of biotas over long evolutionary timescales but face alterations from recent anthropogenic climate change. Here, we model species distributions for 189,269 vascular plant species of the world under present and future climates and use this data to generate biogeographic regions based on phylogenetic dissimilarity. Our analysis reveals declines in phylogenetic beta diversity for years 2040 to 2100, leading to a future homogenization of biogeographic regions. While some biogeographic boundaries will persist, climate change will alter boundaries separating biogeographic realms. Such boundary alterations will be determined by altitude variation, heterogeneity of temperature seasonality, and past climate velocity. Our findings suggest that human activities may now surpass the geological forces that shaped floristic regions over millions of years, calling for the mitigation of climate impacts to meet international biodiversity targets.

  View details for DOI 10.1038/s41467-024-53860-8

  View details for PubMedID 39488541

• Predicting undetected native vascular plant diversity at a global scale. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America Daru, B. H. 2024; 121 (34): e2319989121

  Abstract

  Vascular plants are diverse and a major component of terrestrial ecosystems, yet their geographic distributions remain incomplete. Here, I present a global database of vascular plant distributions by integrating species distribution models calibrated to species' dispersal ability and natural habitats to predict native range maps for 201,681 vascular plant species into unsurveyed areas. Using these maps, I uncover unique patterns of native vascular plant diversity, endemism, and phylogenetic diversity revealing hotspots in underdocumented biodiversity-rich regions. These hotspots, based on detailed species-level maps, show a pronounced latitudinal gradient, strongly supporting the theory of increasing diversity toward the equator. I trained random forest models to extrapolate diversity patterns under unbiased global sampling and identify overlaps with modeled estimations but unveiled cryptic hotspots that were not captured by modeled estimations. Only 29% to 36% of extrapolated plant hotspots are inside protected areas, leaving more than 60% outside and vulnerable. However, the unprotected hotspots harbor species with unique attributes that make them good candidates for conservation prioritization.

  View details for DOI 10.1073/pnas.2319989121

  View details for PubMedID 39133854

• Indicators to monitor the status of the tree of life. Conservation biology : the journal of the Society for Conservation Biology Gumbs, R., Chaudhary, A., Daru, B. H., Faith, D. P., Forest, F., Gray, C. L., Kowalska, A., Lee, W. S., Pellens, R., Pipins, S., Pollock, L. J., Rosindell, J., Scherson, R. A., Owen, N. R. 2023: e14138

  Abstract

  Following the failure to fully achieve any of the 20 Aichi biodiversity targets, the future of biodiversity rests in the balance. The Convention on Biological Diversity's Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) presents the opportunity to preserve nature's contributions to people (NCPs) for current and future generations by conserving biodiversity and averting extinctions. There is a need to safeguard the tree of life-the unique and shared evolutionary history of life on Earth-to maintain the benefits it bestows into the future. Two indicators have been adopted within the GBF to monitor progress toward safeguarding the tree of life: the phylogenetic diversity (PD) indicator and the evolutionarily distinct and globally endangered (EDGE) index. We applied both to the world's mammals, birds, and cycads to show their utility at the global and national scale. The PD indicator can be used to monitor the overall conservation status of large parts of the evolutionary tree of life, a measure of biodiversity's capacity to maintain NCPs for future generations. The EDGE index is used to monitor the performance of efforts to conserve the most distinctive species. The risk to PD of birds, cycads, and mammals increased, and mammals exhibited the greatest relative increase in threatened PD over time. These trends appeared robust to the choice of extinction risk weighting. EDGE species had predominantly worsening extinction risk. A greater proportion of EDGE mammals (12%) had increased extinction risk compared with threatened mammals in general (7%). By strengthening commitments to safeguarding the tree of life, biodiversity loss can be reduced and thus nature's capacity to provide benefits to humanity now and in the future can be preserved.

  View details for DOI 10.1111/cobi.14138

  View details for PubMedID 37377164

• Reorganization of seagrass communities in a changing climate. Nature plants Daru, B. H., Rock, B. M. 2023

  Abstract

  Although climate change projections indicate significant threats to terrestrial biodiversity, the effects are much more profound and striking in the marine environment. Here we explore how different facets of locally distinctive α- and β-diversity (changes in spatial composition) of seagrasses will respond to future climate change scenarios across the globe and compare their coverage with the existing network of marine protected areas. By using species distribution modelling and a dated phylogeny, we predict widespread reductions in species' range sizes that will result in increases in seagrass weighted and phylogenetic endemism. These projected increases of endemism will result in divergent shifts in the spatial composition of β-diversity leading to differentiation in some areas and the homogenization of seagrass communities in other regions. Regardless of the climate scenario, the potential hotspots of these projected shifts in seagrass α- and β-diversity are predicted to occur outside the current network of marine protected areas, providing new priority areas for future conservation planning that incorporate seagrasses. Our findings report responses of species to future climate for a group that is currently under represented in climate change assessments yet crucial in maintaining marine food chains and providing habitat for a wide range of marine biodiversity.

  View details for DOI 10.1038/s41477-023-01445-6

  View details for PubMedID 37336970

  View details for PubMedCentralID 6691109

• Specimens trump field observations in capturing biodiversity trends NATURE ECOLOGY & EVOLUTION Daru, B. H., Rodriguez, J. 2023

  View details for DOI 10.1038/s41559-023-02051-7

  View details for Web of Science ID 000980037500001

  View details for PubMedID 37127768

• Mass production of unvouchered records fails to represent global biodiversity patterns. Nature ecology & evolution Daru, B. H., Rodriguez, J. 2023

  Abstract

  The ever-increasing human footprint even in very remote places on Earth has inspired efforts to document biodiversity vigorously in case organisms go extinct. However, the data commonly gathered come from either primary voucher specimens in a natural history collection or from direct field observations that are not traceable to tangible material in a museum or herbarium. Although both datasets are crucial for assessing how anthropogenic drivers affect biodiversity, they have widespread coverage gaps and biases that may render them inefficient in representing patterns of biodiversity. Using a large global dataset of around 1.9 billion occurrence records of terrestrial plants, butterflies, amphibians, birds, reptiles and mammals, we quantify coverage and biases of expected biodiversity patterns by voucher and observation records. We show that the mass production of observation records does not lead to higher coverage of expected biodiversity patterns but is disproportionately biased toward certain regions, clades, functional traits and time periods. Such coverage patterns are driven by the ease of accessibility to air and ground transportation, level of security and extent of human modification at each sampling site. Conversely, voucher records are vastly infrequent in occurrence data but in the few places where they are sampled, showed relative congruence with expected biodiversity patterns for all dimensions. The differences in coverage and bias by voucher and observation records have important implications on the utility of these records for research in ecology, evolution and conservation research.

  View details for DOI 10.1038/s41559-023-02047-3

  View details for PubMedID 37127769

  View details for PubMedCentralID 5489731

• Mass production of unvouchered records fails to represent global biodiversity patterns Nature Ecology & Evolution Daru, B. H., Rodriguez, J. 2023

  View details for DOI 10.1038/s41559-023-02047-3

• Woody plant phylogenetic diversity supports nature's contributions to people but is at risk from human population growth Conservation Letters Davies, T. J., Maurin, O., Yessoufou, K., Daru, B. H., Bezeng, B. S., Mankga, L. T., Schaefer, H., Thuiller, W., van der Bank, M. 2022; 15: e12914

  View details for DOI 10.1111/conl.12914

• Widespread homogenization of plant communities in the Anthropocene Nature Communications Daru, B. H., Davies, T. J., Willis, C. G., Meineke, E. K., Ronk, A., Zobel, M., Pärtel, M., Antonelli, A., Davis, C. C. 2021; 12: 6983

  View details for DOI 10.1038/s41467-021-27186-8

• Exploring a new way to think about climate regions eLife Daru, B. H. 2021; 10: e67422

  View details for DOI 10.7554/eLife.67422

• Impediments to understanding seagrasses’ response to global change Frontiers in Marine Science Rock, B. M., Daru, B. H. 2021; 8: 608867

  View details for DOI 10.3389/fmars.2021.608867

• Bias assessments to expand research harnessing biological collections Trends in Ecology and Evolution Meineke, E. K., Daru, B. H. 2021; 36: 1071-1082

  View details for DOI 10.1016/j.tree.2021.08.003

• Migratory birds distribute seeds to new climates Nature Daru, B. H. 2021; 595: 34-36

  View details for DOI 10.1038/d41586-021-01547-1

• Endemism patterns are scale dependent. Nature Communications Daru, B. H., Farooq, H., Antonelli, A., Faurby, S. 2020; 11: 2115

  View details for DOI 10.1038/s41467-020-15921-6

• phyloregion: R package for biogeographic regionalization and macroecology Methods in Ecology and Evolution Daru, B. H., Karunarathne, P., Schliep, K. 2020; 11: 1483-1491

  View details for DOI 10.1111/2041-210X.13478

• Savanna tree evolutionary ages inform the reconstruction of the paleoenvironment of our hominin ancestors Scientific Reports Davies, T. J., Daru, B. H., Bezeng, B. S., Charles-Dominique, T., Hempson, G. P., Kabongo, R. M., Maurin, O., Muasya, A. M., van der Bank, M., Bond, W. J. 2020; 10: 12430

  View details for DOI 10.1038/s41598-020-69378-0

• Spatial overlaps between the global protected areas network and terrestrial hotspots of evolutionary diversity Global Ecology and Biogeography Daru, B. H., le Roux, P. C., Gopalraj, J., Park, D. S., Holt, B. G., Greve, M. 2019; 28: 757-766

  View details for DOI 10.1111/geb.12888

• Temperature controls phenology in continuously flowering Protea species of subtropical Africa Applications in Plant Sciences Daru, B. H., Kling, M. M., Meineke, E. K., van Wyk, A. E. 2019; 7: e01232

  View details for DOI 10.1002/aps3.1232

• Invasive species differ in key functional traits from native and non-invasive alien plant species Journal of Vegetation Science Mathakutha, R., Steyn, C., le Roux, P. C., Blom, I. J., Chown, S. L., Daru, B. H., Ripley, B. S., Louw, A., Greve, M. 2019; 30: 994-1006

  View details for DOI 10.1111/jvs.12772

• A novel proof of concept for capturing the diversity of endophytic fungi preserved in herbarium specimens Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B Daru, B. H., Bowman, E. A., Pfister, D. H., Arnold, A. E. 2018; 374: 20170395

  View details for DOI 10.1098/rstb.2017.0395

• Widespread sampling biases in herbaria revealed from large-scale digitization New Phytologist Daru, B. H., Park, D. S., Primack, R. B., Willis, C. G., Barrington, D. S., Whitfeld, T. J., Seidler, T. G., Sweeney, P. W., Foster, D. R., Ellison, A. M., Davis, C. C. 2018; 217: 939-955

  View details for DOI 10.1111/nph.14855

• Biological collections for understanding biodiversity in the Anthropocene Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society Meineke, E. K., Davies, T. J., Daru, B. H., Davis, C. C. 2018; 374: 20170386

  View details for DOI 10.1098/rstb.2017.0386

• Unravelling the evolutionary origins of biogeographic assemblages Diversity and Distributions Daru, B. H., van der Bank, M., Davies, T. J. 2018; 24

  View details for DOI 10.1111/ddi.12679

• Understanding the processes underpinning patterns of phylogenetic regionalization Trends in Ecology and Evolution Daru, B. H., Elliott, T. L., Park, D. S., Davies, T. J. 2017; 32: 845-860

  View details for DOI 10.1016/j.tree.2017.08.013

• Phylogenetic regionalization of marine plants reveals close evolutionary affinities among disjunct temperate assemblages Biological Conservation Daru, B. H., Holt, B. G., Lessard, J. P., Yessoufou, K., Davies, T. J. 2017; 213: 351-356

  View details for DOI 10.1016/j.biocon.2016.08.022

• Testing the reliability of the standard and complementary DNA barcodes for the monocot subfamily Alooideae from South Africa Genome Daru, B. H., van der Bank, M., Bello, A., Yessoufou, K. 2017; 60: 337-347

  View details for DOI 10.1139/gen-2015-0183

• Ten years of barcoding at the African Centre for DNA barcoding Genome Bezeng, B. S., Davies, T. J., Daru, B. H., Kabongo, R. M., Maurin, O., Yessoufou, K., van der Bank, H., van der Bank, M. 2017; 60: 629-638

  View details for DOI 10.1139/gen-2016-0198

• Integrating biogeography, threat and evolutionary data to explore extinction crisis in the taxonomic group of cycads Ecology and Evolution Yessoufou, K., Daru, B. H., Tafirei, R., Elansary, H. O., Rampedi, I. 2017; 7: 2735-2746

  View details for DOI 10.1002/ece3.2660

• Climate change may reduce the spread of non-native species Ecosphere Bezeng, B. S., Morales-Castilla, I., van der Bank, M., Yessoufou, K., Daru, B. H., Davies, T. J. 2017; 8: e01694

  View details for DOI 10.1002/ecs2.1694

• Spiny plants, mammal browsers and the origin of African savannas Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA Charles-Dominique, T., Davies, T. J., Hempson, G. P., Bezeng, B. S., Daru, B. H., Kabongo, R. M., Maurin, O., Muasya, A. M., van der Bank, M., Bond, W. J. 2016; 113: E5572–E5579

  View details for DOI 10.1073/pnas.1607493113

• Marine protected areas are insufficient to conserve global marine plant diversity Global Ecology and Biogeography Daru, B. H., le Roux, P. C. 2016; 25: 324–334

  View details for DOI 10.1111/geb.12412

• A search for a single DNA barcode for seagrasses of the world DNA Barcoding in Marine Perspectives: Assessment and Conservation of Biodiversity Daru, B. H., Yessoufou, K., Ghosh, S. K., Rehman, H. edited by Trivedi, S., Ansari, A. A. Springer International Publishing Switzerland. 2016: 313-330

  View details for DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-41840-7_19

• Opportunities for unlocking the potential of genomics for African trees New Phytologist Daru, B. H., Berger, D. K., van Wyk, A. E. 2016; 210: 772–778

  View details for DOI 10.1111/nph.13826

• Multiple routes underground? Frost alone cannot explain the evolution of underground trees New Phytologist Davies, T. J., Daru, B. H., van der Bank, M., Maurin, O., Bond, W. J. 2016; 209: 910-912
• A novel phylogenetic regionalization of the phytogeographic zones of southern Africa reveals their hidden evolutionary affinities Journal of Biogeography Daru, B. H., van der Bank, M., Maurin, O., Yessoufou, K., Schaefer, H., Slingsby, J. A., Davies, T. J. 2016; 43: 155-166

  View details for DOI 10.1111/jbi.12619

• Spatial incongruence among hotspots and complementary areas of tree diversity in southern Africa Diversity and Distributions Daru, B. H., van der Bank, M., Davies, T. J. 2015; 21: 769-780

  View details for DOI 10.1111/ddi.12290

• DNA barcodes reveal microevolutionary signals in fire response trait in two legume genera AoB PLANTS Bello, A., Daru, B. H., Stirton, C. H., Chimphango, S. B., van der Bank, M., Maurin, O., Muasya, A. M. 2015; 7: plv124

  View details for DOI 10.1093/aobpla/plv124

• Phylogenetic exploration of commonly used medicinal plants in South Africa Molecular Ecology Resources Yessoufou, K., Daru, B. H., Muasya, A. M. 2015; 15: 405-413

  View details for DOI 10.1111/1755-0998.12310