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5029249 
Book/Book Chapter 
Chapter 17: Phylogenetic nonindependence and meta-analysis 
Lajeunesse, MJ; Rosenberg, MS; Jennions, MD 
2013 
Princeton University Press 
Princeton, NJ 
Handbook of Meta-analysis in Ecology and Evolution 
English 
is part of a larger document 5029185 Handbook of Meta-analysis in Ecology and Evolution
In ecological and evolutionary meta-analysis, pooling research from multiple species can be a problem because species form a nested hierarchy of phylogenetic relationships. This shared phylogenetic history can introduce a correlated structure to effect size data because studies on closely related species may yield similar outcomes, and therefore similar estimates of effect sizes. This similarity is the product of shared (i.e., phylogenetically conserved) morphological, physiological, or behavioral characteristics. This chapter describes statistical methods to account for phylogenetic nonindependence of species when pooling and testing for homogeneity of effect sizes. It also describes a method that compares the results of a traditional and a phylogenetically independent meta-analysis to evaluate which approach was more effective at explaining variation in research outcomes. Using these methods, it provides a worked example of a meta-analysis on trade-offs among plant antiherbivore defenses. The chapter concludes a discussion on approaches for collating phylogenetic information for meta-analysis.