Landscape genetics has emerged as a new research area that integrates population genetics and landscape ecology. The main interest in this field is to evaluate the role that landscape spatial features and ecological process play in gene flow and population structure. The first key step of landscape genetics is the spatial detection, which directly relates to the sampling design and the results accuracy. Riparian plants distribution has obvious boundaries, providing a good platform for landscape genetics research.

A research group from the Key Laboratory of Aquatic Botany and Watershed Ecology, WBG used landscape genetics and statistical models to test how landscape features influence connectivity or create barriers to dispersal for a mountain riparian tree species, Euptelea pleiospermum.

In this study, young leaves from 1078 individuals belonging to 36 populations at elevations of 900-2000 m along upper reaches of four rivers were genotyped using eight nuclear microsatellite markers. They found no evidence for the unidirectional dispersal hypothesis in E. pleiospermum within each river. The linear dispersal pattern along each river valley is mostly consistent with the “classical metapopulaton” model. Mountain ridges separating rivers were genetic barriers for this wind-pollinated tree species with anemochorous seeds, whereas river valleys provided important corridors for dispersal. Gene flow among populations along elevational gradients within each river prevails over gene flow among populations at similar elevations but from different rivers. This pattern of gene flow is likely to promote elevational range shifts of plant populations and to hinder local adaptation along elevational gradients. This study provides a paradigm to determine which of the two strategies (migration or adaptation) will be adopted by mountain riparian plants under climate warming.

Results entitled “Landscape genetic structure of a streamside tree species Euptelea pleiospermum (Eupteleaceae): contrasting roles of river valley and mountain ridge” were published in PLoS ONE. The study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 31070465 and 31100344).

Article link: http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0066928 

 Population structure of Euptelea pleiospermum estimated by the programs STRUCTURE 2.3.4 (A) and TESS 2.3.1 (B). (Image by WEI Xinzeng)