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What do tropical cryptogams reveal? Strong genetic structure in Amazonian bryophytes
Author(s) -
Ledent Alice,
Gauthier Jérémy,
Pereira Martinha,
Overson Rick,
Laenen Benjamin,
Mardulyn Patrick,
Gradstein S. Robbert,
Haan Myriam,
Ballings Petra,
Van der Beeten Iris,
Zartman Charles E.,
Vanderpoorten Alain
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
new phytologist
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.742
H-Index - 244
eISSN - 1469-8137
pISSN - 0028-646X
DOI - 10.1111/nph.16720
Subject(s) - biological dispersal , amazonian , biology , ecology , isolation by distance , fragmentation (computing) , geographical distance , biodiversity , amazon rainforest , genetic structure , genetic variation , population , biochemistry , demography , sociology , gene
Summary Lowland tropical bryophytes have been perceived as excellent dispersers. In such groups, the inverse isolation hypothesis proposes that spatial genetic structure is erased beyond the limits of short‐distance dispersal. Here, we determine the influence of environmental variation and geographic barriers on the spatial genetic structure of a widely dispersed and phylogenetically independent sample of Amazonian bryophytes. Single nucleotide polymorphism data were produced from a restriction site‐associated DNA sequencing protocol for 10 species and analyzed through F‐statistics and Mantel tests. Neither isolation‐by‐environment nor the impact of geographic barriers were recovered from the analyses. However, significant isolation‐by‐distance patterns were observed for 8 out of the 10 investigated species beyond the scale of short‐distance dispersal (> 1 km), offering evidence contrary to the inverse isolation hypothesis. Despite a cadre of life‐history traits and distributional patterns suggesting that tropical bryophytes are highly vagile, our analyses reveal spatial genetic structures comparable to those documented for angiosperms, whose diaspores are orders of magnitude larger. Dispersal limitation for tropical bryophytes flies in the face of traditional assumptions regarding their dispersal potential, and suggests that the plight of this component of cryptic biodiversity is more dire than previously considered in light of accelerated forest fragmentation in the Amazon.