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Human-induced changes on fine-scale genetic structure in Ulmus laevis Pallas wetland forests at its SW distribution limit

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Abstract

Human activities have deeply transformed the Mediterranean landscape for millennia. Wetland and riverbed vegetation are among the most affected ecosystems because of the value of these areas for agriculture, due to their rich soil and water availability. This has caused the fragmentation, population reduction, and extinction of many species. We focus our study on Ulmus laevis Pallas, an endangered tree species in the Iberian Peninsula, as an extreme example of these formations. We study the diversity and fine-scale spatial genetic structure of two human disturbed wetland populations with chloroplast markers and nuclear microsatellites. We evaluate their recovery possibilities, and how they will be affected by future aridification and water table depletion. Our results show that although these populations have suffered bottlenecks and have low genetic diversity, they maintain the same diversity levels as the European populations. Despite the low genetic variation that could contribute to inbreeding problems in the future, we discuss that the main threat of the species is habitat destruction. Finally, we propose some management and conservation policies to ameliorate these effects.

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Acknowledgments

We would like to thank César Cardo, Alberto Pérez, and Julio Orellana for having shown us Valdelatas elm grove. We thank Segovia XXI for having allowed us collect samples in Quitapesares and helping us preserve this population. We thank Eudaldo González for the elm surveys, he has carried out all over Spain. We are also grateful to Salustiano Iglesias, Pablo Sanjuanbenito, and Cuenca Alta del Manzanares park managers for their support. We also show gratitude to Zaida Lorenzo, Elena Zafra, Eva Miranda, Jorge Domínguez, David Macaya, Gerrie Seket, Guillermo González, Miriam Fajardo, and Ana Moreno for their technical assistance and help. This study was financed by the Comunidad de Madrid (Project S2009AMB-1668). M.V. is sponsored by a PIF Grant from the Technical University of Madrid.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. GENFOR Grupo de Investigación en Genética y Fisiología Forestal, Departamento de Silvopascicultura, E.T.S.I. de Montes, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Ciudad Universitaria S/N, 28040, Madrid, Spain

    Martin Venturas, Carmen Collada & Luis Gil

  2. Institute of Evolutionary Biology, The University of Edinburgh, West Mains Road, Edinburgh, EH9 9JT, UK

    Pablo Fuentes-Utrilla & Richard Ennos

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  1. Martin Venturas
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  2. Pablo Fuentes-Utrilla
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  3. Richard Ennos
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  4. Carmen Collada
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  5. Luis Gil
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Luis Gil.

Additional information

Carmen Collada and Luis Gil contributed equally to this study.

Electronic supplementary material

Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.

11258_2013_170_MOESM1_ESM.pdf

Online Resource 1 Tables with the details of Spanish Ulmus laevis Pall. populations and the location of U. laevis trees within towns. Supplementary material 1 (PDF 48 kb)

11258_2013_170_MOESM2_ESM.pdf

Online Resource 2 Breast height diametric distribution of Quitapesares and Valdelatas Ulmus laevis populations. Supplementary material 2 (PDF 48 kb)

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Venturas, M., Fuentes-Utrilla, P., Ennos, R. et al. Human-induced changes on fine-scale genetic structure in Ulmus laevis Pallas wetland forests at its SW distribution limit. Plant Ecol 214, 317–327 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11258-013-0170-5

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