Genetic structure of Doronicum austriacum (Asteraceae) in the Carpathians and adjacent areas: toward a comparative phylogeographical analysis of tall-herb species

Abstract

Tall-herb communities play an important role in the vegetation of the European mountains. They are developed in humid habitats with nutrient-rich soil, from submontane to subalpine zones. As its contemporary flora consists of different geographical elements, their history, especially in relation to the climatic oscillations throughout the Pleistocene, is not straightforward. We analyze the phylogeography of Doronicum austriacum, one of the main species building Central European tall-herb communities. We additionally discuss these new data in the context of earlier phylogeographical studies of key species of tall-herb communities to compare the major patterns of their lineage distributions. The study was based on AFLP fingerprinting and DNA sequencing of sampled populations from the Carpathians and adjacent lowland, Alps, Sudetes, and Balkan Peninsula. Our results confirm the phylogeographical break between the Western and South-Eastern Carpathians as a major regional biogeographical feature. Close affinity of the Western Carpathian and Sudetes populations was also confirmed as a significant feature in common for studied tall-herb species. In contrast to the phylogeographical structure of other tall-herb species, a divergence of D. austriacum populations from the Balkan Peninsula was observed supporting the presence of divergent and taxonomically distinct lineage in the latter area. The general phylogeographical pattern indicates past survival in several distinct areas but only partly common features for the community level emerge. Finally, the history of low-elevation populations of D. austriacum at the northern margin of the distribution range remains unclear but mainly their close affinity to the forest Western Carpathian populations is suggested.Publisher's Note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

So Closely Related and Yet So Different: Strong Contrasts Between the Evolutionary Histories of Species of the Cardamine pratensis Polyploid Complex in Central Europe

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The molecular population structure of Swertia perennis (Gentianaceae) in Central Europe

“…This suggests that colonization of the lowlands may have occurred independently, with later zone contact in the German and Polish lowlands. A common haplotype was found both for the population of D. austriacum from mountainous areas (Carpathians, Sudetes) and those located in the Świętokrzyska Upland (Poland), several hundred kilometers to the north, surrounded by lowland areas 22 . Similarly, S. lapponum is a species that at its current sites, both in the Sudetes and in the lowland of north-eastern Poland, shows a large phylogeographic similarity 23 .…”

The Role of the Hercynian Mountains of Central Europe in Shaping Plant Migration Patterns in the Pleistocene—A Review

“…Often, they are only minimally considered, which means that the genetic variability of European populations is incomplete. We can see from the available data that only some publications cover a wider geographic range of Hercynian populations [ 38 , 48 , 49 , 51 , 57 , 62 , 67 , 70 , 72 , 74 , 75 ] ( Table 1 ). Only a few publications have studied the plant populations distributed in several Hercynian ranges.…”