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Abstract Detail



Bryological and Lichenological Section/ABLS

Shaw, Jonathan [1].

Biogeography and population genetics of the Amphi-Pacific peatmoss, Sphagnum miyabeanum Warnst.

Sphagnum miyabeanum is the correct name for western North American and eastern Asian peatmosses that have generally been called S. subsecundum. S. miyabeanum occurs from central California to Alaska and southward to Japan and China. Variation in nucleotide sequences at seven nuclear genes and two plastid regions is not geographically structured, but microsatellite markers reveal significant genetic divergence between plants from China, Japan, Alaska, British Columbia, and the western U.S. (south of British Columbia) in all pairwise comparisons. Alaskan plants are genetically most similar to Asian plants, and British Columbian plants are most similar to those in the western U.S. from Washington, Oregon, ad California. There is detectable migration among regions, with especially high levels between Alaska and Asia (China and Japan). Migration appears to be recent and/or ongoing, and more or less equivalent in magnitude in both directions. There is weak (but significant) isolation by distance within geographic regions, and the slope of the regression of genetic on geographic distance differs for Asian vs. North American plants, suggesting different constraints on dispersal in the two geographic regions. We conclude that the intercontinental geographic range of S. miyabeanum reflects recent and probably ongoing migration, facilitated by the production of tiny spores capable of effective long distance dispersal. Our results are consistent with Pleistocene survival of S. miyabeanum in unglaciated Beringia, but we cannot eliminate the possibility that the species recolonized Alaska from Asia more recently.

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1 - Duke University, Biology, NC, 27708

Keywords:
mosses
Sphagnum
Bryophytes
population genetics
Phylogeography
disjunct distributions.

Presentation Type: Oral Paper:Papers for Sections
Session: 23
Location: Ascot/Riverside Hilton
Date: Tuesday, July 30th, 2013
Time: 10:30 AM
Number: 23006
Abstract ID:407
Candidate for Awards:None


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