Abstract Detail

Biogeography

Drummond, Chloe [1], Sytsma, Ken [2].

A comparison of two Western North America-Great Lakes disjuncts using phylogeography, population genetics, and niche modeling.

The Great Lakes flora is a composite of floristic elements from the southeast (Alleghenian), south (Ozarkian), west (Prairie), and north (Boreal) that clearly abut and sometimes overlap in the Great Lakes region. Amid these elements is a less common, but equally striking pattern of disjunct species that are found more abundantly west of the Rocky Mountains and sometimes have isolated populations in the Black Hills of South Dakota. The plants of this disjunct distribution are not closely related, nor do they all share character traits associated with dispersal or occupy the same climatic niches. In addition, these plants tend to be threatened or endangered in the Great Lakes area. Their geographic distribution and the proliferation of the number of cases of this distribution lead to questions addressing the establishment of the Great Lakes populations and their persistence in the Great Lakes. With GBS data, populations of Rubus parviflorus and Oplopanax horridus have been analyzed for their phylogeographic patterns, testing the classic hypotheses of vicariance or dispersal. Our results suggest that there was a more recent dispersal to the Great Lakes from the western populations of R. parviflorus, and that there may have been an ancestral widespread distribution. In contrast, our O. horridus analysis suggests a vicariance event. To understand the distribution of these two disjunct species in a more integrated way, we looked at population genetic statistics to assess the population structure and genetic diversity of the Great Lakes populations. Finally, we assessed the niche space of these species, testing for niche overlap and projection of the Great Lakes populations into the future given our era of rapid climate change.

1 - University Of Wisconsin-Madison, 430 Lincoln Drive, Madison, WI, 53706, USA
2 - University Of Wisconsin, Department Of Botany, Birge Hall, 430 Lincoln Drive, Madison, WI, 53706, USA

Keywords:
Phylogeography
disjunctions.

Presentation Type: Oral Paper
Session: 43, Biogeography III
Location: 205/Savannah International Trade and Convention Center
Date: Wednesday, August 3rd, 2016
Time: 2:30 PM
Number: 43005
Abstract ID:908
Candidate for Awards:None