Skip to main content

Advertisement

Log in

A multi-compartmented glacial refugium in the northern Rocky Mountains: Evidence from the phylogeography of Cardamine constancei (Brassicaceae)

  • Published:
Conservation Genetics Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The age and origin of the mesic coniferous forest ecosystem of the Pacific Northwest of North America have long been the subject of debate by biogeographers. Cardamine constancei, an endemic of the Rocky Mountain segment of this ecosystem, was subjected to phylogeographic analysis to test explicit hypotheses on the age of the ecosystem. We have predicted genetic homogeneity among river drainages if C. constancei and other associated species migrated into the region after glaciation, in contrast to the genetic differentiation that may have accrued if the species and its ecosystem have long survived in the relatively warm river canyons south of glaciation. We detected 19 haplotypes with divergence up to 1.5%, and they comprise 4 well-differentiated cpDNA clades. These clades are allopatric except for two haplotypes from the lower Clearwater clade that appear to have dispersed north into partial sympatry with the clade endemic to St.␣Joe River. The divergence and distribution of these clades is consistent with the existence of a complex glacial refugium with at least four compartments. The surprisingly high cpDNA diversity within this species suggests that conservation of mesic coniferous forest ecosystems in the region warrant a conservation plan that accounts for the historically imposed spatial structure of genetic diversity. We are currently testing our phylogeographic hypotheses by the comparative analyses of a suite of plants, animals and fungi.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Avise JC (2000) Phylogeography: The History and Formation of Species. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brunsfeld SJ, Soltis DE, Soltis PS (1992) Evolutionary patterns and processes in Salix sect. Longifoliae: Evidence from chloroplast DNA. Syst. Bot. 17: 239–256

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brunsfeld SJ, Sullivan J, Soltis DE, Soltis PS (2001) Comparative phylogeography Of Northwestern North America: A synthesis. In: Silvertown J, Antonovics J (eds). Integrating ecological and evolutionary processes in a spatial context. Blackwell Science, Oxford, pp. 319–339

    Google Scholar 

  • Byrne M, Macdonald B, Coates D (1999) Divergence in the chloroplast genome and nuclear rDNA of the rare Western Australian plant Lambertia orbifolia Gardner (Proteaceae). Mol. Ecol. 8: 1789–1796

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Calsbeek R, Thompson JN, Richardson JE (2003) Patterns of molecular evolution and diversification in a biodiversity hotspot: The California Floristic Province. Mol. Ecol. 12: 1021–1029

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Carstens BC, Stevenson AL, Degenhardt JD, Sullivan J. (2004). Testing nested phylogenetic and phylogeographic hypotheses in the Plethodon vandykei species group. Syst. Biol. 53: 781–792

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Carstens BC, Demboski JR, Good JM, Brunsfeld SJ, Sullivan J (2005) The evolutionary history of the northern Rocky Mountain mesic forest ecosystem. Evolution, in press

  • Clement M, Posada D, Crandall KA (2000) TCS: A computer program to estimate gene genealogies. Mol. Ecol. 9: 1657–1659

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Daubenmire R (1975). Floristic plant geography of eastern Washington and northern Idaho. J. Biogeogr. 2: 1–18

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Davis MB (1983) Quaternary history of deciduous forests of eastern North America and Europe. Ann. Mo. Bot.Gard. 70: 550–563

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Delcourt PA, Delcourt HR (1987) Long-term forest dynamics of the temperate zone. Springer-Verlag, N.Y.

    Google Scholar 

  • Delcourt HR, Delcourt PA (1991) Quaternary Ecology, A Paleoecological Perspective. Chapman and Hall, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Demboski JR, Cook JA (2001) Phylogeography of the dusky shrew, Sorex monticolus (Insectivora, Soricidae): insight into deep and shallow history in northwestern North America. Mol. Ecol. 10: 1227–1240

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Demesure B, Comps B, Petit RJ (1996) Chloroplast DNA phylogeography of Common Beech (Fagus sylvatica L.) in Europe. Evolution 50: 2515–2520

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Detling LE (1968) Historical background of the flora of the Pacific Northwest. Bulletin No. 13, Museum of Natural History, University of Oregon, Eugene

  • Felsenstein J (1985) Confidence limits on phylogenies: An approach using the bootstrap. Evolution 39: 783–791

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ferris C, King RA, Vainola R, Hewitt GM (1998) Chloroplast DNA recognizes three refugial sources of European oaks and suggests independent eastern and western immigrations to Finland. Heredity 80: 584–593

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Franklin JF, Dyrness CT (1973) Natural Vegetation of Oregon and Washington. General Technical Report PNW-8, USDA Forest Service, Portland, Oregon

  • Good JM, Sullivan J (2001) Phylogeography of the red-tailed chipmunk (Tamias ruficaudus), a northern Rocky Mountain endemic Mol. Ecol. 10: 2683–2695

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Hewitt GM (2000) The genetic legacy of the quaternary ice ages. Nature 405: 907–913

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Huelsenbeck JP, Ronquist F (2001) MrBayes: Bayesian inference of phylogenetic trees. Bioinformatics 17: 754–755

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Johnson FD, Steele R (1978) New plant records from Pacific coastal refugia. Northwest Sci. 52: 205–211

    Google Scholar 

  • Knowles LL, Maddison WP (2002) Statistical phylogeography. Mol. Ecol. 11: 2623–2635

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Koch M, Haubold B, Mitchell-Olds (2001) Molecular systematics of the Brassicaceae: Evidence from coding plastidic matK and nuclear chs sequences. Am. J. Bot. 88: 534–544

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Leiberg JB (1900) Bitterroot forest reserve. In: Twentieth annual rep. of the U.S. Geol. Survey, Part V-forest reserves, pp. 317–410. Wash. Govern. Print. Off

  • Mack RN, Rutter NW, Bryant Jr. V.M, Valastro S (1978) Late quaternary pollen record from Big Meadow, Pend Oreille County, Washington. Ecology 59: 956–965

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Manel S, Schwartz MK, Luikart G, Taberlet P (2003) Landscape genetics: Combining landscape ecology and population genetics. Trends Ecol. Evol. 18: 189–197

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nielson R, Wakeley J (2001) Distinguishing migration from isolation: A Markov Chain Monte Carlo approach. Genetics 158: 885–896

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Posada D, Crandall KA, Templeton AR (2000) GeoDis, a program for the cladistic nested analysis of the geographical distribution of genetic haplotypes. Mol. Ecol. 9: 487–488

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Soltis DE, Gitzendanner MA, Strenge DD, Soltis PS (1997) Chloroplast DNA intraspecific phylogeography of plants from the Pacific Northwest of North America. Plant Syst. Evol. 206: 353–373

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Swofford DL (2002) PAUP*. Phylogenetic Analysis Using Parsimony (*and Other Methods). Ver. 4. Sinauer Associates, Sunderland, Mass

  • Swofford DL, Sullivan J (2003) Phylogeny inference based on parsimony and other methods using PAUP*. In: Salemi M, Vandamme A-M (eds). The Phylogenetic Handbook, A Practical Approach to DNA and Protein Phylogeny. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge UK, pp. 160–206

    Google Scholar 

  • Taberlet P, Gielly L, Pautou G, Bouvet J (1991) Universal primers for amplification of three non-coding regions of chloroplast DNA. Pl. Mol. Biol. 17: 1105–1109

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Taberlet P, Fumagalli L, Wust-Saucy A-G, Cosson J-F (1998) Comparative phylogeography and post glacial colonization routes in Europe. Mol. Ecol. 7: 453–464

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Taberlet P, Cheddadi R (2002) Quaternary refugia and persistence of biodiversity. Science 297: 2009–2010

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Templeton AR (1998) Nested clade analyses of phylogeographic data: Testing hypotheses about gene flow and population history. Mol. Ecol. 7: 381–397

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Templeton AR (2004) Statistical phylogeography: Methods of evaluating and minimizing inference errors. Mol. Ecol. 13: 789–809

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Templeton AR, Boerwinkle E, Sing CF (1987) A cladistic analysis of phenotypic associations with haplotypes inferred from restriction endonuclease mapping. I. Basic theory and an analysis of alcohol dehydrogenase activity in Drosophila. Genetics 117: 343–351

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Templeton AR, Crandall K, Sing CF (1992) A cladistic analysis of phenotypic associations with haplotypes inferred from restriction endonuclease mapping and DNA sequence data. III. Cladogram estimation. Genetics 132: 619–633

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Templeton AR, Routman E, Phillips CA (1995) Separating population structure from population history: A cladistic analysis of the geographic distribution of mitochondrial DNA haplotypes in the tiger salamander, Ambystoma tigrinum. Genetics 140: 767–782

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Weider LJ, Hobæk A (2003) Glacial refugia, haplotype distributions, and clonal richness of the Daphnia pulex complex in arctic Canada. Mol. Ecol. 12: 463–473

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Wilke T, Duncan N (2004). Phylogeographical patterns in the American Pacific Northwest: Lessons from the arionid slug Prophysaon coeruleum. Mol. Ecol. 13: 2303–2315

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Wolfe KH, Li WH, Sharp PM (1987) Rates of nucleotide substitution vary greatly among plant mitochondrial, chloroplast and nuclear DNAs. Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. USA 84: 9054–9058

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Steven J. Brunsfeld.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Brunsfeld, S.J., Sullivan, J. A multi-compartmented glacial refugium in the northern Rocky Mountains: Evidence from the phylogeography of Cardamine constancei (Brassicaceae). Conserv Genet 6, 895–904 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10592-005-9076-7

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10592-005-9076-7

Key words

Navigation