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Alpine vegetation dataset from three contrasting mountain ranges differing in climate and evolutionary history.

ABSTRACT: Vegetation above treeline constitutes one of the most vulnerable ecosystems to climate warming and other drivers of Global Change. Given the panorama of such an uncertain future facing these plant communities, it is critical to know how they respond to environmental changes and improve the knowledge on the potential impacts of climate change on their distribution. Recently, with the impressive development of trait-based approaches, relevant progress has been made to better understand the relationships between environmental conditions and plant communities. In this data paper, we describe data on abundances of 327 alpine plant species across 430 subplots of 2.4 m × 2.4 m in three mountain ranges (Sierra de Guadarrama and Pyrenees in Spain, and the Central Andes in Chile). We provide data on different environmental variables that represent variation in abiotic conditions and operate at different spatial scales (e.g., climatic, topographic and soil conditions). Data on six plant functional traits are also shown, which were measured on ten individuals of each species, following standard protocols. We provided the dataset as tables in the supplementary material. This information could be used to analyse the relationship between the alpine vegetation and changes in environmental conditions, and ultimately, to understand ecosystem functioning and guide conservation strategies of theses threatened and valuable ecosystems.

SUBMITTER: Lopez-Angulo J

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6880020 | biostudies-literature |

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Project description:BackgroundThe Carpathians and the Alps are the largest mountain ranges of the European Alpine System and important centres of endemism. Among the distinctive endemic species of this area is Saxifraga wahlenbergii, a Western Carpathians member of the speciose genus Saxifraga. It was frequently considered a taxonomically isolated Tertiary palaeopolyploid and palaeoendemic, for which the closest relatives could not yet be traced. A recently described narrow endemic of the Eastern Alps, S. styriaca, was hypothesized to be closely related to S. wahlenbergii based on shared presence of peculiar glandular hairs. To elucidate the origin and phylogenetic relationships of both species we studied nuclear and plastid DNA markers based on multiple accessions and analysed the data in a wide taxonomic context. We applied Sanger sequencing, followed by targeted next-generation sequencing (NGS) for a refined analysis of nrITS variants to detect signatures of ancient hybridization. The ITS data were used to estimate divergence times of different lineages using a relaxed molecular clock.ResultsWe demonstrate divergent evolutionary histories for the two mountain endemics. For S. wahlenbergii we revealed a complicated hybrid origin. Its maternal parent belongs to a Western Eurasian lineage of high mountain taxa grouped in subsect. Androsaceae and is most likely the widespread S. androsacea. The putative second parent was most likely S. adscendens, which belongs to the distantly related subsect. Tridactylites. While Sanger sequencing of nrITS only showed S. adscendens-related variants in S. wahlenbergii, our NGS screening revealed presence of sequences from both lineages with clear predominance of the paternal over the maternal lineage.ConclusionsSaxifraga styriaca was unambiguously assigned to subsect. Androsaceae and is not the sister taxon of S. wahlenbergii. Accordingly, the similarity of the glandular hairs observed in both taxa rests on parallelism and both species do not constitute an example of a close evolutionary link between the floras of the Western Carpathians and Eastern Alps. With the origin of its paternal, S. adscendens-like ITS DNA estimated to ca. 4.7 Ma, S. wahlenbergii is not a relict of the mid-Tertiary climate optimum. Its hybrid origin is much younger and most likely took place in the Pleistocene.

Dataset Information

Alpine vegetation dataset from three contrasting mountain ranges differing in climate and evolutionary history.

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