Long Distance Dispersal of Zooplankton Endemic to Isolated Mountaintops - an Example of an Ecological Process Operating on an Evolutionary Time Scale

Recent findings suggest a convergence of time scales between ecological and evolutionary processes which is usually explained in terms of rapid micro evolution resulting in evolution on ecological time scales. A similar convergence, however, can also emerge when slow ecological processes take place...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Vanschoenwinkel, Bram, Mergeay, Joachim, Pinceel, Tom, Waterkeyn, Aline, Vandewaerde, Hanne, Seaman, Maitland, Brendonck, Luc
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2011
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3213101/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22102865
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0026730
_version_ 1782216079362228224
author Vanschoenwinkel, Bram
Mergeay, Joachim
Pinceel, Tom
Waterkeyn, Aline
Vandewaerde, Hanne
Seaman, Maitland
Brendonck, Luc
author_facet Vanschoenwinkel, Bram
Mergeay, Joachim
Pinceel, Tom
Waterkeyn, Aline
Vandewaerde, Hanne
Seaman, Maitland
Brendonck, Luc
author_sort Vanschoenwinkel, Bram
collection PubMed
description Recent findings suggest a convergence of time scales between ecological and evolutionary processes which is usually explained in terms of rapid micro evolution resulting in evolution on ecological time scales. A similar convergence, however, can also emerge when slow ecological processes take place on evolutionary time scales. A good example of such a slow ecological process is the colonization of remote aquatic habitats by passively dispersed zooplankton. Using variation at the protein coding mitochondrial COI gene, we investigated the balance between mutation and migration as drivers of genetic diversity in two Branchipodopsis fairy shrimp species (Crustacea, Anostraca) endemic to remote temporary rock pool clusters at the summit of isolated mountaintops in central South Africa. We showed that both species colonized the region almost simultaneously c. 0.8 My ago, but exhibit contrasting patterns of regional genetic diversity and demographic history. The haplotype network of the common B. cf. wolfi showed clear evidence of 11 long distance dispersal events (up to 140 km) with five haplotypes that are shared among distant inselbergs, as well as some more spatially isolated derivates. Similar patterns were not observed for B. drakensbergensis presumably since this rarer species experienced a genetic bottleneck. We conclude that the observed genetic patterns reflect rare historic colonization events rather than frequent ongoing gene flow. Moreover, the high regional haplotype diversity combined with a high degree of haplotype endemicity indicates that evolutionary- (mutation) and ecological (migration) processes in this system operate on similar time scales.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-3213101
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2011
publisher Public Library of Science
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-32131012011-11-18 Long Distance Dispersal of Zooplankton Endemic to Isolated Mountaintops - an Example of an Ecological Process Operating on an Evolutionary Time Scale Vanschoenwinkel, Bram Mergeay, Joachim Pinceel, Tom Waterkeyn, Aline Vandewaerde, Hanne Seaman, Maitland Brendonck, Luc PLoS One Research Article Recent findings suggest a convergence of time scales between ecological and evolutionary processes which is usually explained in terms of rapid micro evolution resulting in evolution on ecological time scales. A similar convergence, however, can also emerge when slow ecological processes take place on evolutionary time scales. A good example of such a slow ecological process is the colonization of remote aquatic habitats by passively dispersed zooplankton. Using variation at the protein coding mitochondrial COI gene, we investigated the balance between mutation and migration as drivers of genetic diversity in two Branchipodopsis fairy shrimp species (Crustacea, Anostraca) endemic to remote temporary rock pool clusters at the summit of isolated mountaintops in central South Africa. We showed that both species colonized the region almost simultaneously c. 0.8 My ago, but exhibit contrasting patterns of regional genetic diversity and demographic history. The haplotype network of the common B. cf. wolfi showed clear evidence of 11 long distance dispersal events (up to 140 km) with five haplotypes that are shared among distant inselbergs, as well as some more spatially isolated derivates. Similar patterns were not observed for B. drakensbergensis presumably since this rarer species experienced a genetic bottleneck. We conclude that the observed genetic patterns reflect rare historic colonization events rather than frequent ongoing gene flow. Moreover, the high regional haplotype diversity combined with a high degree of haplotype endemicity indicates that evolutionary- (mutation) and ecological (migration) processes in this system operate on similar time scales. Public Library of Science 2011-11-10 /pmc/articles/PMC3213101/ /pubmed/22102865 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0026730 Text en Vanschoenwinkel et al. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are properly credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Vanschoenwinkel, Bram
Mergeay, Joachim
Pinceel, Tom
Waterkeyn, Aline
Vandewaerde, Hanne
Seaman, Maitland
Brendonck, Luc
Long Distance Dispersal of Zooplankton Endemic to Isolated Mountaintops - an Example of an Ecological Process Operating on an Evolutionary Time Scale
title Long Distance Dispersal of Zooplankton Endemic to Isolated Mountaintops - an Example of an Ecological Process Operating on an Evolutionary Time Scale
title_full Long Distance Dispersal of Zooplankton Endemic to Isolated Mountaintops - an Example of an Ecological Process Operating on an Evolutionary Time Scale
title_fullStr Long Distance Dispersal of Zooplankton Endemic to Isolated Mountaintops - an Example of an Ecological Process Operating on an Evolutionary Time Scale
title_full_unstemmed Long Distance Dispersal of Zooplankton Endemic to Isolated Mountaintops - an Example of an Ecological Process Operating on an Evolutionary Time Scale
title_short Long Distance Dispersal of Zooplankton Endemic to Isolated Mountaintops - an Example of an Ecological Process Operating on an Evolutionary Time Scale
title_sort long distance dispersal of zooplankton endemic to isolated mountaintops - an example of an ecological process operating on an evolutionary time scale
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3213101/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22102865
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0026730
work_keys_str_mv AT vanschoenwinkelbram longdistancedispersalofzooplanktonendemictoisolatedmountaintopsanexampleofanecologicalprocessoperatingonanevolutionarytimescale
AT mergeayjoachim longdistancedispersalofzooplanktonendemictoisolatedmountaintopsanexampleofanecologicalprocessoperatingonanevolutionarytimescale
AT pinceeltom longdistancedispersalofzooplanktonendemictoisolatedmountaintopsanexampleofanecologicalprocessoperatingonanevolutionarytimescale
AT waterkeynaline longdistancedispersalofzooplanktonendemictoisolatedmountaintopsanexampleofanecologicalprocessoperatingonanevolutionarytimescale
AT vandewaerdehanne longdistancedispersalofzooplanktonendemictoisolatedmountaintopsanexampleofanecologicalprocessoperatingonanevolutionarytimescale
AT seamanmaitland longdistancedispersalofzooplanktonendemictoisolatedmountaintopsanexampleofanecologicalprocessoperatingonanevolutionarytimescale
AT brendonckluc longdistancedispersalofzooplanktonendemictoisolatedmountaintopsanexampleofanecologicalprocessoperatingonanevolutionarytimescale