Abstract
An increasingly important practical application of the analysis of spatial genetic structure within plant species is to help define the extent of local provenance seed collection zones that minimize negative impacts in ecological restoration programs. Here, we derive seed sourcing guidelines from a novel range-wide assessment of spatial genetic structure of 24 populations of Banksia menziesii (Proteaceae), a widely distributed Western Australian tree of significance in local ecological restoration programs. An analysis of molecular variance (AMOVA) of 100 amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) markers revealed significant genetic differentiation among populations (ΦPT = 0.18). Pairwise population genetic dissimilarity was correlated with geographic distance, but not environmental distance derived from 15 climate variables, suggesting overall neutrality of these markers with regard to these climate variables. Nevertheless, Bayesian outlier analysis identified four markers potentially under selection, although these were not correlated with the climate variables. We calculated a global R-statistic using analysis of similarities (ANOSIM) to test the statistical significance of population differentiation and to infer a threshold seed collection zone distance of ∼60 km (all markers) and 100 km (outlier markers) when genetic distance was regressed against geographic distance. Population pairs separated by >60 km were, on average, twice as likely to be significantly genetically differentiated than population pairs separated by <60 km, suggesting that habitat-matched sites within a 30-km radius around a restoration site genetically defines a local provenance seed collection zone for B. menziesii. Our approach is a novel probability-based practical solution for the delineation of a local seed collection zone to minimize negative genetic impacts in ecological restoration.
Highlights
Ecological restoration – the process of assisting the recovery of an ecosystem that has been degraded, damaged, or destroyed – is a rapidly emerging scientific discipline (Clewell and Aronson 2007)
100 amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) markers were scored for 359 B. menziesii plants sampled from 24 locations across the geographic range of the species, of which 79 were polymorphic (Table 1)
An overall association between average pairwise population genetic dissimilarity with pairwise population geographic distance was reflected in a significant Mantel test (R2 = 0.33; P < 0.01)
Summary
Ecological restoration – the process of assisting the recovery of an ecosystem that has been degraded, damaged, or destroyed – is a rapidly emerging scientific discipline (Clewell and Aronson 2007). Decisions on the sourcing of vast quantities of germplasm (typically seed) should be underpinned by fundamental ecological and evolutionary principles that drive spatial genetic structure within species (Hufford and Mazer 2003; McKay et al 2005). Other genetic issues underpinning a concern with sourcing local, rather than composite, provenance genotypes for restoration include outbreeding depression (Hufford and Mazer 2003; Edmands 2007; Goto et al 2011; Hufford et al 2012), genetic swamping (Potts et al 2003), and an erosion of spatial genetic structure leading to negative consequences for the conservation of within-species biodiversity (Krauss and He 2006).
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