Visualising Geophylogenies in Web Maps Using GeoJSON

Discussion At present the method described here requires a middle layer (written in PHP) that resides on a web server and converts the NEXUS file to GeoJSON. An obvious extension would be to port that code to Javascript and have the entire tool function within the web-browser client. Although lacking some of the functionality of more specialised software such as GenGIS, an advantage of a web map-based tool is that it brings phylogenies into an environment already familiar to users of biodiversity data, such as the GBIF portal. Many users will have already encountered points on maps, and layers (e.g., of environmental data, or estimated species distributions). By representing phylogeny in GeoJSON we open the way for phylogenetic information to be incorporated into these maps. Another reason GeoJSON is attractive is that because it is a JSON document it could be stored and indexed in a document database such as CouchDB 20 , which I’ve used elsewhere for taxonomic and phylogenetic data 21 . Hence we could imagine being able to quickly build a database of geophylogenies that can be queried both taxonomically and spatially. This would be one way to tackle the challenge of Kidd’s call for a “map of life”3. Competing interests The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.
Source: PLOS Currents Tree of Life - Category: Genetics & Stem Cells Authors: Source Type: research