Abstract
The Mauritia flexuosa L.f. palm is known as the “tree of life” given its importance as fundamental food and construction resources for humans. The species is broadly distributed in wet habitats of Amazonia and dry habitats of the Amazon and Orinoco river basins and in the Cerrado savanna. We collected 179 individuals from eight different localities throughout these habitats and used microsatellites to characterize their population structure and patterns of gene flow. Overall, we found high genetic variation, except in one savanna locality. Gene flow between populations is largely congruent with river basins and the direction of water flow within and among them, suggesting their importance for seed dispersal. Further, rivers have had a higher frequency of human settlements than forested sites, contributing to population diversity and structure through increased human use and consumption of M. flexuosa along rivers. Gene flow patterns revealed that migrants are sourced primarily from within the same river basin, such as those from Madeira and Tapajós basins. Our work suggests that rivers and their inhabitants are a critical element of the landscape in Amazonia and have impacted the dispersal and subsequent distribution of tropical palm species, as shown by the patterns of genetic variation in M. flexuosa.
Highlights
Environmental and geographic features of the landscape are crucial in shaping the population genetic structure and demography of plants
The impact of rivers on population structure in the Amazonia has been documented in birds, small mammals, invertebrates (e.g., Aleixo, 2006; Colwell, 2000; Pellegrino et al, 2005; Ribas, Aleixo, Nogueira, Miyaki, & Cracraft, 2012; Vallinoto et al, 2006), and in trees and understory plant species (Huaman & Matthies, 2008; Nazareno, Dick, & Lohmann, 2017; Schleuning et al, 2011; Stevenson, 2007; Zhang, Zheng, & Song, 2007)
Our main research questions are whether rivers in Amazonian forests are facilitators or barriers to gene flow, whether population genetic structure is maintained in populations throughout river basins, and if recruitment is associated with river flow
Summary
Environmental and geographic features of the landscape are crucial in shaping the population genetic structure and demography of plants. Chloroplast markers used to characterize M. flexuosa in different river basins revealed low nucleotide diversity within populations from the Brazilian savannas, which was interpreted as range retraction followed by population subdivision during the cold and dry periods of the Quaternary glacial periods (de Lima, Lima-Ribeiro, Tinoco, Terribile, & Collevatti, 2014). Our main research questions are whether rivers in Amazonian forests are facilitators or barriers to gene flow, whether population genetic structure is maintained in populations throughout river basins, and if recruitment is associated with river flow We address these questions using microsatellite markers across different river basins in tropical forests and savanna sites, and we discuss the impact of human river inhabitants in the generation of recent population structure of this palm species
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