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  • Speciation in a keystone plant genus is driven by elevation: a case study in New Guinean Ficus

    Author(s)
    Segar, S.T.
    Volf, M
    Zima jnr, J.
    Isua, Brus
    Sisol, M.
    Sam, Legi
    Sam, Katerina
    Souto-Vilaros, D.
    Novotny, Vojtech
    Griffith University Author(s)
    Sam, Legi
    Year published
    2017
    Metadata
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    Abstract
    Much of the world's insect and plant biodiversity is found in tropical and subtropical ‘hotspots’, which often include long elevational gradients. These gradients may function as ‘diversity pumps’ and contribute to both regional and local species richness. Climactic conditions on such gradients often change rapidly along short vertical distances and may result in local adaptation and high levels of population genetic structure in plants and insects. We investigated the population genetic structure of two species of Ficus (Moraceae) along a continuously forested elevational gradient in Papua New Guinea. This speciose plant ...
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    Much of the world's insect and plant biodiversity is found in tropical and subtropical ‘hotspots’, which often include long elevational gradients. These gradients may function as ‘diversity pumps’ and contribute to both regional and local species richness. Climactic conditions on such gradients often change rapidly along short vertical distances and may result in local adaptation and high levels of population genetic structure in plants and insects. We investigated the population genetic structure of two species of Ficus (Moraceae) along a continuously forested elevational gradient in Papua New Guinea. This speciose plant genus is pollinated by tiny, species-specific and highly coevolved chalcid wasps (Agaonidae) and represented by at least 73 species at our study gradient. We present results from two species of Ficus sampled from six elevations between 200 m and 2700 m a.s.l. (almost the entire elevational range of the genus) and 10 polymorphic microsatellite loci. These results show that strong barriers to gene flow exist between 1200 m and 1700 m a.s.l. Whereas lowland populations are panmictic across distances over 70 km, montane populations can be disjunct over 4 km, despite continuous forest cover. We suggest that the limited gene flow between populations of these two species of montane Ficus may be driven by environmental limitations on pollinator or seed dispersal in combination with local adaptation of Ficus populations. Such a mechanism may have wider implications for plant and pollinator speciation across long and continuously forested elevational gradients if generalist insect pollinators and vertebrate seed dispersers also form populations based on elevation.
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    Journal Title
    Journal of Evolutionary Biology
    Volume
    30
    Issue
    3
    DOI
    https://doi.org/10.1111/jeb.13020
    Subject
    Evolutionary Biology not elsewhere classified
    Ecology
    Evolutionary Biology
    Zoology
    Publication URI
    http://hdl.handle.net/10072/340511
    Collection
    • Journal articles

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