Genetic diversity, phenotypic variation and local adaptation in the alpine landscape: case studies with alpine plant species ...

• Main Authors: Kuss, Patrick, Pluess, Andrea R., Stoecklin, Juerg
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Birkhäuser 2009
• Subjects: 580 Plants Botany; Poa alpina
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.7892/boris.53774; http://boris.unibe.ch/53774/

Plant survival in alpine landscapes is constantly challenged by the harsh and often unpredictable environmental conditions. Steep environmental gradients and patchy distribution of habitats lead to small size and spatial isolation of populations and restrict gene flow. Agricultural land use has further increased the diversity of habitats below and above the treeline. We studied the consequences of the highly structured alpine landscape for evolutionary processes in four study plants: Epilobium fleischeri, Geum reptans, Campanula thyrsoides and Poa alpina. The main questions were: (1) How is genetic diversity distributed within and among populations and is it affected by altitude, population size or land use? (2) Do reproductive traits such as allocation to sexual or vegetative reproduction vary with altitude or land use? Furthermore, we studied if seed weight increases with altitude. Within-population genetic diversity of the four species was high and mostly not related to altitude and population size. ...