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Integrating Multiple Lines of Evidence to Explore Intraspecific Variability in a Rare Endemic Alpine Plant and Implications for Its Conservation
We studied the ecology, distribution, and phylogeography of Tephroseris balbisiana, a rare plant whose range is centered to the South-Western Alps. Our aim was to assess the extent of intraspecific variability within the nominal species and the conservation status of isolated populations. We studied...
Autores principales: | , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
MDPI
2020
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7569986/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32911798 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/plants9091160 |
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author | Adamo, Martino Mammola, Stefano Noble, Virgile Mucciarelli, Marco |
author_facet | Adamo, Martino Mammola, Stefano Noble, Virgile Mucciarelli, Marco |
author_sort | Adamo, Martino |
collection | PubMed |
description | We studied the ecology, distribution, and phylogeography of Tephroseris balbisiana, a rare plant whose range is centered to the South-Western Alps. Our aim was to assess the extent of intraspecific variability within the nominal species and the conservation status of isolated populations. We studied genetic diversity across the whole species range. We analyzed leaf traits, which are distinctive morphological characters within the Tephroseris genus. A clear pattern of genetic variation was found among populations of T. balbisiana, which clustered according to their geographic position. On the contrary, there was a strong overlap in the morphological space of individuals across the species’ range, with few peripheral populations diverging in their leaf morphology. Studying habitat suitability by means of species distribution models, we observed that T. balbisiana range is primarily explained by solar radiation and precipitation seasonality. Environmental requirements could explain the genetic and morphological uniformity of T. balbisiana in its core distribution area and justify genetic, morphological, and ecological divergences found among the isolated populations of the Apennines. Our findings emphasize the need to account for the whole diversity of a species, comprising peripheral populations, in order to better estimate its status and to prioritize areas for its conservation. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-7569986 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2020 |
publisher | MDPI |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-75699862020-10-29 Integrating Multiple Lines of Evidence to Explore Intraspecific Variability in a Rare Endemic Alpine Plant and Implications for Its Conservation Adamo, Martino Mammola, Stefano Noble, Virgile Mucciarelli, Marco Plants (Basel) Article We studied the ecology, distribution, and phylogeography of Tephroseris balbisiana, a rare plant whose range is centered to the South-Western Alps. Our aim was to assess the extent of intraspecific variability within the nominal species and the conservation status of isolated populations. We studied genetic diversity across the whole species range. We analyzed leaf traits, which are distinctive morphological characters within the Tephroseris genus. A clear pattern of genetic variation was found among populations of T. balbisiana, which clustered according to their geographic position. On the contrary, there was a strong overlap in the morphological space of individuals across the species’ range, with few peripheral populations diverging in their leaf morphology. Studying habitat suitability by means of species distribution models, we observed that T. balbisiana range is primarily explained by solar radiation and precipitation seasonality. Environmental requirements could explain the genetic and morphological uniformity of T. balbisiana in its core distribution area and justify genetic, morphological, and ecological divergences found among the isolated populations of the Apennines. Our findings emphasize the need to account for the whole diversity of a species, comprising peripheral populations, in order to better estimate its status and to prioritize areas for its conservation. MDPI 2020-09-08 /pmc/articles/PMC7569986/ /pubmed/32911798 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/plants9091160 Text en © 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). |
spellingShingle | Article Adamo, Martino Mammola, Stefano Noble, Virgile Mucciarelli, Marco Integrating Multiple Lines of Evidence to Explore Intraspecific Variability in a Rare Endemic Alpine Plant and Implications for Its Conservation |
title | Integrating Multiple Lines of Evidence to Explore Intraspecific Variability in a Rare Endemic Alpine Plant and Implications for Its Conservation |
title_full | Integrating Multiple Lines of Evidence to Explore Intraspecific Variability in a Rare Endemic Alpine Plant and Implications for Its Conservation |
title_fullStr | Integrating Multiple Lines of Evidence to Explore Intraspecific Variability in a Rare Endemic Alpine Plant and Implications for Its Conservation |
title_full_unstemmed | Integrating Multiple Lines of Evidence to Explore Intraspecific Variability in a Rare Endemic Alpine Plant and Implications for Its Conservation |
title_short | Integrating Multiple Lines of Evidence to Explore Intraspecific Variability in a Rare Endemic Alpine Plant and Implications for Its Conservation |
title_sort | integrating multiple lines of evidence to explore intraspecific variability in a rare endemic alpine plant and implications for its conservation |
topic | Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7569986/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32911798 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/plants9091160 |
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