Hitchhiking with forests: population genetics of the epiphytic lichen Lobaria pulmonaria in primeval and managed forests in southeastern Europe

Ecology and Evolution

Christoph Scheidegger¹  Peter O. Bilovitz²  Silke Werth¹  Ivo Widmer¹ 

[1] Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL, Birmensdorf, Switzerland;Institute of Plant Sciences, Department of Systematic Botany and Geobotany, Karl-Franzens-University Graz, Graz, Austria

关键词: Conservation biology;    lichen ecology;    phylogeography;    population genetics;    primeval forests;   

DOI  :  10.1002/ece3.341

来源: Wiley

【 摘 要 】

Abstract

Availability of suitable trees is a primary determinant of range contractions and expansions of epiphytic species. However, switches between carrier tree species may blur co-phylogeographic patterns. We identified glacial refugia in southeastern Europe for the tree-colonizing lichen Lobaria pulmonaria, studied the importance of primeval forest reserves for the conservation of genetically diverse populations and analyzed differences in spatial genetic structure between primeval and managed forests with fungus-specific microsatellite markers. Populations belonged to either of two genepools or were admixed. Gene diversity was higher in primeval than in managed forests. At small distances up to 170 m, genotype diversity was lower in managed compared with primeval forests. We found significant associations between groups of tree species and two L. pulmonaria genepools, which may indicate “hitchhiking” of L. pulmonaria on forest communities during postglacial migration. Genepool B of L. pulmonaria was associated with European Beech (Fagus sylvatica) and we can hypothesize that genepool B survived the last glaciation associated within the refuge of European Beech on the Coastal and Central Dinarides. The allelic richness of genepool A was highest in the Alps, which is the evidence for a northern refuge of L. pulmonaria. Vicariant altitudinal distributions of the two genepools suggest intraspecific ecological differentiation.

【 授权许可】

Unknown   
© 2012 The Authors. Published by Blackwell Publishing Ltd. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited and is not used for commercial purposes.