Taxonomy and phylogenetics
Studying species classification and the history of species evolution
We aim to broaden future opportunities for interdisciplinary understandings through a consistent compilation of genetic, taxonomic, trait, and ecological data types. The evolutionary history of herbaceous plants remains poorly documented compared to woody flora, and the documentation of their diversity through the maintenance and updating of taxonomic classifications remains an extensive and active area of research. Grasses are a good example of a complex herbaceous group, where their classification is continuously updated as our understanding evolves (Soreng et al., 2000; Soreng et al., 2017) to reflect the continuously improving reconstructions of evolutionary history (Saaerela et al., 2018). The evolution of herbaceous plants has given rise to their genetic and morphological diversity, and has thus directly shaped the ecological function of individuals, populations, species, genera, and families of plants. GGG takes an integrative approach to studying the genetic, morphological, and taxonomic diversity of the plants within grassy ecosystems aiming to build interconnected DNA sequence and plant diversity datasets, with herbarium vouchers stored in local herbaria and the corresponding sequences stored in GenBank. The resulting interdisciplinary insights into grassy biome history and function have only just begun: for example, phylogenetic diversity of Malagasy grasslands indicate their function as natural ecosystems (Vorontsova et al., 2016), while genetic diversity of Loudetia simplex indicates a pre-human origin on Loudetia-dominated grasslands in highland Madagascar (Hagl et al., 2020).