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Macro-scale assessment of demographic and environmental variation within genetically derived evolutionary lineages of eastern hemlock (Tsuga canadensis), an imperiled conifer of the eastern United States
- Source :
- Biodiversity and Conservation. 26:2223-2249
- Publication Year :
- 2017
- Publisher :
- Springer Science and Business Media LLC, 2017.
-
Abstract
- Eastern hemlock (Tsuga canadensis) occupies a large swath of eastern North America and has historically undergone range expansion and contraction resulting in several genetically separate lineages. This conifer is currently experiencing mortality across most of its range following infestation of a non-native insect. With the goal of better understanding the current and future conservation potential of the species, we evaluate ecological differences among populations within these genetically defined clusters, which were previously inferred using nuclear microsatellite molecular markers from 58 eastern hemlock populations. We sub-divide these clusters into four genetic zones to differentiate putative north-central, north-east and southeast (SE) and southwest evolutionary lineages in eastern hemlock. We use demographic data (relative abundance, mortality, and seedling regeneration) from the Forest Inventory Analysis program in conjunction with environmental data to model how these lineages respond to current and future climatic gradients. Ecologically meaningful relationships are explored in the intraspecific context of hemlock abundance distribution and then related to genetic variation. We also assess hemlock's colonization likelihood via a long distance dispersal model and explore its future genetic and ecological conservation potential by combining the future suitable habitats with colonization likelihoods. Results show that future habitats under climate change will markedly
- Subjects :
- 0106 biological sciences
010504 meteorology & atmospheric sciences
Ecology
Biodiversity
Biology
biology.organism_classification
010603 evolutionary biology
01 natural sciences
Intraspecific competition
Tsuga
Habitat
Genetic variation
Biological dispersal
Colonization
Relative species abundance
Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics
0105 earth and related environmental sciences
Nature and Landscape Conservation
Subjects
Details
- ISSN :
- 15729710 and 09603115
- Volume :
- 26
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Biodiversity and Conservation
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi...........c216727384d62d6e637d7be26a841078