Genetic and climatic approaches reveal effects of Pleistocene refugia and climatic stability in an old giant of the Neotropical Dry Forest

MARTINEZ-MEYER E.; COSACOV A.; VERGA A.; CAMPS A.; SÉRSIC A. N.; MARTINEZ-MEYER E.; COSACOV A.; VERGA A.; CAMPS A.; SÉRSIC A. N.

BIOLOGICAL JOURNAL OF THE LINNEAN SOCIETY

WILEY-BLACKWELL PUBLISHING, INC

Lugar: Londres; Año: 2018 vol. 125 p. 401 - 420

0024-4066

ABSTRACT Neotropical Dry Forests are important biodiversity hotspots characterized by intermediate to high levels of species richness and endemisms. A possible explanation to these characteristics of these forests are supposed to have been less affected by drastic glacial impacts than other biomes of the world. Using two approaches, geo-statistical phylogeography, based on two chloroplast markers, and multi-algorithm-based niche modelling, in the present and past times, we explored if, during glacial periods, the geographic range of Bulnesia sarmientoi underwent stability, expansions or retractions over space and time and if there is a relationship among past climatic refugia, current climatic optimum and genetic diversity. We estimated that B. sarmientoi would have diverged from other Bulnesia at the beginning of the Pliocene (5 Mya), with diversification of the current lineages occurring in the Pleistocene (1.4 to 1.1 Mya). Our results suggest that forests underwent population expansion events during the glacial periods, whereas they would have undergone population stasis during interglacial periods. Furthermore, we identified a putative refugial area in the Dry Chaco that has been climatically stable through time, which agrees with the highest genetic diversity area and with the spatial location of the climatic optimum of the focal species.