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Are woody seeder plants more prone than resprouter to population genetic differentiation in Mediterranean-type ecosystems?

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Abstract

High diversification of woody seeder lineages is characteristic of the south-western cape floristic region (CFR), South Africa, which has been explained as a consequence of its mild Mediterranean climate and reliable winter rainfall. Such climatic regime reduces the risk of post-fire recruitment failure, acting as an ecological filter that favours seeder populations, thus promoting genetic differentiation and diversification in seeder populations, as previously seen in the South African heath Erica coccinea. To explore this hypothesis further, genetic population structure was investigated in two Mediterranean Erica species, one seeder (Erica umbellata) and the other resprouter (Erica australis), using nuclear microsatellites. These two species are endemic to the western Mediterranean Basin and co-occur in heathlands of the Strait of Gibraltar region. Mean annual rainfall in this region is similar to that from the south-western CFR, but summer stress is more marked and winter rainfall is much less reliable. Contrary to what was found in E. coccinea, average genetic diversity levels were considerably lower in seeder populations (E. umbellata), regardless of an apparently higher gene flow among them. No differences in genetic differentiation among populations were found between the two species. The occurrence of less favourable climatic conditions for post-fire recruitment in the western Mediterranean compared to the south-western CFR may affect seeder populations more strongly than resprouter and may thus account for lower levels of within-population genetic diversity in the seeder E. umbellata. In addition, putatively higher migration rates in the seeder E. umbellata, may contribute to reduce its potential for genetic differentiation. This study provides evidence that high divergence of seeder populations is not a general rule in fire-prone, Mediterranean-type ecosystems.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Mohammed Ater, from the University Abdelmalek-Essaadi for providing permits for fieldwork. Manu Gil, Ana Payo and Maria Simpson helped with plant sampling.The facilities at SCSIE (Universitat de València) were used for fragment analysis. Financial support for lab work has been provided by project VAMPIRO (CGL2008-05289-C02-01/BOS; Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación), project P07-RNM-02869 (Junta de Andalucía, Spain) and project ACOMP09/073 (Generalitat Valenciana, Spain). JGS-M was supported by a ‘Ramón y Cajal’ (MICINN-RYC, Spain) postdoctoral contract. CT-D was supported by the Consejería de Innovación, Ciencia y Empresa (Junta de Andalucía, Spain).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centro de Investigaciones sobre Desertificación (CIDE, CSIC-UV-GV), Carretera de Moncada-Náquera Km 4.5, 46113, Moncada (Valencia), Spain

    José Gabriel Segarra-Moragues

  2. Laboratorio de Genómica y Biodiversidad (LGB), Departamento de Ciencias Básicas, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad del Bío-Bío, Chillán, Chile

    Cristian Torres-Díaz

  3. Departamento de Biología, Universidad de Cádiz, Campus Río San Pedro, 11510, Puerto Real, Spain

    Fernando Ojeda

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  1. José Gabriel Segarra-Moragues
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  2. Cristian Torres-Díaz
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Correspondence to Fernando Ojeda.

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Segarra-Moragues, J.G., Torres-Díaz, C. & Ojeda, F. Are woody seeder plants more prone than resprouter to population genetic differentiation in Mediterranean-type ecosystems?. Evol Ecol 27, 117–131 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10682-012-9586-y

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