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Back to the future of a rare plant species of the Chihuahuan desert: tracing distribution patterns across time and genetic diversity as a basis for conservation actions

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Abstract

Habitat fragmentation and its effects on the persistence of populations and species are of major concern to conservation biology. Penstemon coriaceus is a rare and endemic species from the Mexican Central Plateau and adjacent foothills of the Sierra Madre Occidental and Sierra Madre Oriental, which belongs to the Chihuahuan Desert ecoregion. This is the first study that integrates population genetics and ecological niche modeling analysis as tools to understand the distribution and genetic diversity patterns of a Penstemon species. We used AFLP markers for 144 individuals across 11 populations, and calibrated Ecological niche modeling for three different time periods (current, future and past). Population genetics analysis showed low levels of genetic diversity at the population level and high genetic differentiation among populations. Ecological niche modeling analysis revealed an important decline of the distribution range due to climate change, which can be considered as an indicator for the vulnerability of temperate forest. The integration of both methods revealed that the genetic differentiation observed only show a relationship with the environment variables and the habitat suitability, but not with the geographical distribution of the populations sampled; which indicate the importance of the environmental factors in the determination of genetic processes for P. coriaceus.

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Acknowledgements

This research was funded by NSF DEB 1455399 (ADW), CONACyT project 20006-11337 and private funding (MSS) and CONACyT Grant 421643 (AGZC). We are grateful to Pedro Castillo, Julio Martínez Rodríguez, Socorro González Elizondo, J. Israel Guadián Marín, Minerva Martínez Calderón and Salvador Guzmán Díaz for their support during the fieldwork. We also thank Rosa A. Rodríguez Peña, José Gilberto Díaz Ayala, Maria Sagatelova, Coleen Thompson, Emiko Waight, Alex Ward, Morgan VanDeCarr and Lydia Mihaly for their support in the laboratory. Finally, we thank Javier Rodríguez Rodríguez and Maria Chanel Juárez for their suggestions to improve the ENM analyses and Yessica Rico Mancebo del Castillo and Benjamin W. Stone for their support with population genetics analyses.

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  1. Instituto de Ecología, A.C., Centro Regional del Bajío, Red de Diversidad Biológica del Occidente Mexicano, Avenida Lázaro Cárdenas 253, 61600, Pátzcuaro, Michoacán, Mexico

    Ana Gabriela Zacarías-Correa, Emmanuel Pérez-Calix & Marie-Stéphanie Samain

  2. CONACyT Research Fellow, Instituto de Ecología A. C., Red de Estudios Moleculares Avanzados, Laboratorio de Biogeografía, Carretera Antigua a Coatepec No. 351, El Haya, 91070, Xalapa, Veracruz, Mexico

    Andrés Lira-Noriega

  3. Department of Evolution, Ecology, and Organismal Biology, The Ohio State University, 318 West 12th Avenue, Columbus, Ohio, 43210, USA

    Andrea D. Wolfe

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  1. Ana Gabriela Zacarías-Correa
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Correspondence to Ana Gabriela Zacarías-Correa.

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Zacarías-Correa, A.G., Lira-Noriega, A., Pérez-Calix, E. et al. Back to the future of a rare plant species of the Chihuahuan desert: tracing distribution patterns across time and genetic diversity as a basis for conservation actions. Biodivers Conserv 29, 1821–1840 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10531-020-01962-2

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