Abstract
BackgroundThe study of organisms with restricted dispersal abilities and presence in the fossil record is particularly adequate to understand the impact of climate changes on the distribution and genetic structure of species. Trochoidea geyeri (Soós 1926) is a land snail restricted to a patchy, insular distribution in Germany and France. Fossil evidence suggests that current populations of T. geyeri are relicts of a much more widespread distribution during more favourable climatic periods in the Pleistocene.ResultsPhylogeographic analysis of the mitochondrial 16S rDNA and nuclear ITS-1 sequence variation was used to infer the history of the remnant populations of T. geyeri. Nested clade analysis for both loci suggested that the origin of the species is in the Provence from where it expanded its range first to Southwest France and subsequently from there to Germany. Estimated divergence times predating the last glacial maximum between 25–17 ka implied that the colonization of the northern part of the current species range occurred during the Pleistocene.ConclusionWe conclude that T. geyeri could quite successfully persist in cryptic refugia during major climatic changes in the past, despite of a restricted capacity of individuals to actively avoid unfavourable conditions.
Highlights
The study of organisms with restricted dispersal abilities and presence in the fossil record is adequate to understand the impact of climate changes on the distribution and genetic structure of species
With the exception of haplotype 20, which was found in two neighbouring sampling localities on the Causse de Larzac, all haplotypes were restricted to a single population (Table 2)
T. geyeri seems to have survived in local refugia the reduction of the favourable steppe-like habitat due to climatic extremes during the pleniglacial and interstadial periods, as it is the case today
Summary
The study of organisms with restricted dispersal abilities and presence in the fossil record is adequate to understand the impact of climate changes on the distribution and genetic structure of species. Trochoidea geyeri (Soós 1926) is a land snail restricted to a patchy, insular distribution in Germany and France. The predicted global climate change will undoubtedly have a major impact on the distribution ranges and survival of many animal and plant species [1]. Many species have particular habitat requirements, which result in a patchy, insular habitat distribution [3]. Active dispersal is quite restricted in snails It is commonplace to assume that only few, if (page number not for citation purposes)
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