Balearic insular isolation and large continental spread framed the phylogeography of the western Mediterranean Cheirolophus intybaceus s.l. (Asteraceae)

Abstract

Recent Quaternary geological and climate events have shaped the evolutionary histories of plant species in the Mediterranean basin, one of the most important hotspots of biodiversity. Genetic analyses of the western Mediterranean Cheirolophus intybaceus s.l. (Asteraceae) based on AFLP were conducted to establish the relationships between its close species and populations, to reconstruct the phylogeography of the group and to analyse potential unidirectional versus bidirectional dispersals between the Ibero-Provençal belt and the Balearic Islands. AFLP data revealed two main genetic groups, one constituted by the Balearic populations and Garraf (NE Iberia) and the other formed by the remaining mainland populations that were further sub-structured into two geographically separated subgroups (SE + E Iberia and NE Iberia + SW France). Genetic diversity and spatial structure analyses suggested a mid-Pleistocene scenario for the origin of C. intybaceus in southern Iberia, followed by dispersal to the north and a single colonisation event of the Balearic archipelago from the near Dianic NE Iberian area. This hypothesis was supported by paleogeographic data, which showed the existence of terrestrial connections between the continent and the islands during the Middle-Late Pleistocene marine regressions, whereas the more recent single back-colonisation of the mainland from Mallorca might be explained by several hypotheses, such as long-distance dispersal mediated by migratory marine birds or sea currents.

The genetic diversity and spatial genetic structure of the Corso‐Sardinian endemic Ferula arrigonii Bocchieri (Apiaceae)

“…(Garnatje et al . ). Westberg & Kadereit () investigated the genetic structure of the two coastal plant species Cakile maritima Scop.…”

Population size, center–periphery, and seed dispersers’ effects on the genetic diversity and population structure of the Mediterranean relict shrub Cneorum tricoccon

“…Furthermore, the Messinian Salinity Crisis that almost desiccated the Mediterranean Sea, the recurrent connections, and disconnections with Northern Africa vegetation (Rodríguez-Sánchez et al, 2008) or the existence of microrefugia for relictic species in the Mediterranean coasts (MolEco; Dubreuil et al, 2008;Lumaret et al, 2002) may have also influenced current species' distributions (Hewitt, 2011). All these processes have fostered both expansion pulses-such as the several contacts of the Balearic Islands with the Iberian Peninsula (Garnatje, Pérez-Collazos, Pellicer, & Catalán, 2013) or the cohesion of Mallorca and Cabrera in a single land mass (Vesica et al, 2000)-as well as isolation processes of the populations that colonized the extremes of the distribution (such as MA, CG, or GI).…”

Evolutionary history of the Maltese wall lizard Podarcis filfolensis: insights on the ‘Expansion–Contraction’ model of Pleistocene biogeography

“…Moreover, spatial expansions of temperate species during glacial marine regressions have recurrently been invoked to explain dispersal of temperate species between islands of Mediterranean archipelagos and/or with the continent (e.g. Fattorini 2002;Salvi et al 2011;Garnatje et al 2012;Rodriguez et al 2013; see also Thompson 2005;Blondel et al 2010).…”