Abstract
Mediterranean islands have served as important Tertiary and glacial refuges, hosting important peripheral and ecologically marginal forest tree populations. These populations, presumably harboring unique gene complexes, are particularly interesting in the context of climate change. Pinus brutia Ten. is widespread in the eastern Mediterranean Basin and in Cyprus in particular it is the most common tree species. This study evaluated genetic patterns and morphoanatomical local adaptation along the species geographical distribution and altitudinal range in Cyprus. Analysis showed that the Cyprus population of P. brutia is a peripheral population with high genetic diversity, comprised of different subpopulations. Evidence suggests the presence of ongoing dynamic evolutionary processes among the different subpopulations, while the most relic and isolated subpopulations exhibited a decreased genetic diversity compared to the most compact subpopulations in the central area of the island. These results could be the consequence of the small size and prolonged isolation of the former. Comparing populations along an altitude gradient, higher genetic diversity was detected at the middle level. The phenotypic plasticity observed is particularly important for the adaptive potential of P. brutia in an island environment, since it allows rapid change in local environmental conditions.
Highlights
The islands of the Mediterranean basin comprise one of the 36 terrestrial biodiversity hot spots of the world and are characterized by high diversity of landscape and vegetation types due to the complex historical biogeography and the profound environmental heterogeneity [1,2]
One out of the three allelic detected in locus MNR was found in subpopulation Pafos North (PaN) and in the altitudinal subpopulation
PaZ.800, and one out of the two alleles of locus IDH was found in subpopulation PaN and in the altitudinal subpopulation PaZ.1200
Summary
The islands of the Mediterranean basin comprise one of the 36 terrestrial biodiversity hot spots of the world and are characterized by high diversity of landscape and vegetation types due to the complex historical biogeography and the profound environmental heterogeneity [1,2]. The geographic isolation and the environmental heterogeneity of the Mediterranean basin have favored diverse evolutionary processes of gradual speciation of plants, such as genetic drift or adaptive radiation (see previous papers [4,8,9]). These features indicate the role of the wild populations of flora and fauna species in the Mediterranean islands as important peripheral (and marginal) populations. These populations may concurrently be those where the most significant evolutionary changes will occur; those with increasing extinction risk; the source of migrants for the colonization of new habitats at leading edges; or the source of genetic variation for reinforcing existing genetic variation in various parts of the range [10]
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