Several Pleistocene refugia detected in the high alpine plant Phyteuma globulariifolium Sternb. & Hoppe (Campanulaceae) in the European Alps

Abstract

Phyteuma globulariifolium is a high alpine plant species growing in the European Alps and the Pyrenees. In order to elucidate its glacial history, 325 individuals from 69 populations were analysed using the amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) technique. A strongly hierarchical phylogeographical pattern was detected: Two major east-west vicariant groups can be separated along a gap in the distributional area. A further subdivision into at least four populational groups is in congruence with presumed peripheral glacial refugia. There is no indication for survival on unglaciated mountain tops (nunataks) in the interior of the Pleistocene ice shield covering the Alps. Our results favour glacial survival in peripheral, unglaciated or not fully glaciated areas. Populations of P. globulariifolium in the Pyrenees are the result of relatively recent long-distance dispersal. Within the Alps, there is strong differentiation among groups of populations, whereas within them the differentiation is weak. This suggests high levels of gene-flow over short to middle distances.

Amplified Fragment Length Polymorphism (AFLP) reveals no genetic divergence of the Eastern Alpine endemic Oxytropis campestris subsp. tiroliensis (Fabaceae) from widespread subsp. campestris

“…obs.). In other studies on Alpine plants (Stehlik et al 2001(Stehlik et al a, 2002bScho¨nswetter et al 2002Scho¨nswetter et al , 2003, in press a, in press b; Tribsch et al 2002) strong phylogeographical patterns were detected caused by vicariance in glacial refugia. In the arctic-alpine coloniser Saxifraga oppositifolia L., however, Holderegger et al (2002) found a phylogeographical structure similarly weak as in the present study.…”

“…Total genomic DNA was extracted from comparable amounts of dried tissue following a CTAB-protocol (Doyle and Doyle 1987) with modifications as described in Scho¨nswetter et al (2002). The quality of the extracted DNA was checked on 1% TAE-agarose gels and quantified photometrically (UV 160A Spectrophotometer, Shimadzu).…”

“…Stehlik et al (2001Stehlik et al ( , 2002a and Stehlik (2002) found evidence for nunatak survival in central parts of the Alps. Scho¨nswetter et al (2002Scho¨nswetter et al ( , 2003, Tribsch et al (2002) and Tribsch and Scho¨ns-wetter (2003) explained the detected phylogeographic patterns with survival in refugia at the southern and eastern periphery of the Alps including peripheral nunatak areas. All studies, however, focused on single taxa that are widespread in the Alps.…”

Causes of the genetic architecture of south-west European high mountain disjuncts

“…the Quaternary), the European high mountain areas inhabited by alpine plant species today could not have been populated because of the presence of extensive glaciers, especially in the Alps. Exceptions to this may have been unglaciated peripheral refugia just below the Pleistocene snow line, or ice-free mountain tops ('nunataks') protruding above the glaciers (Stehlik 2000;Stehlik et al 2001Stehlik et al , 2002Schönswetter et al 2002Bettin et al 2007). As a result, the phylogeographic histories of alpine taxa are complex and characterised by species-specific local extinction, retreat, refugial survival, isolation and/or recolonisation.…”

Marie Brockmann-Jerosch and her influence on Alpine phylogeography

“…This holds especially true for species of siliceous bedrock; siliceous bedrock being the dominant bedrock in the southern peripheral Alps. Examples of species showing (several) glacial refugia along the southern Alps are Androsace alpina (Schönswetter et al 2003a), Eritrichium nanum (Stehlik et al 2002a), Phyteuma globulariifolium (Schönswetter et al 2002) or Ranunculus glacialis (Schönswetter et al 2003b). Although these studies showed that the eastern peripheral Alps also harboured important refugial areas during the ice ages (Schönswetter et al 2005), Marie Brockmann-Jerosch's conclusion of major glacial refugia in the southern peripheral Alps has largely been verified by modern phylogeography.…”