Living at the dry limits: ecological genetics of Tillandsia landbeckii lomas in the Chilean Atacama Desert

Vegetation growth and landscape genetics of Tillandsia lomas at their dry limits in the Atacama Desert show fine‐scale response to environmental parameters

“…Accordingly, using an area model with detailed data on elevation at a minimum resolution of 30 cm (Wolf et al, 2016), positioning of individuals on a 100 × 100 m grid base is very precise. Genetic data of this sampling were previously reported (Koch et al, 2019), and herein, we discuss these data in the context of growth parameters. We further explored the data spatially and generated a genetic diversity landscape using Alleles in Space (AIS) version 1.0 (Miller, 2005) using the analysis "Interpolate Genetic Landscape Shape."…”

“…With increasing slope, the distance between rows is decreasing; however, there is an optimal slope ranging from between 5.5 and 12.5° because sand has to be trapped to stabilize growth (Wolf et al, 2016). Such linear or banded formation patterns in arid climates have already been described, but we lack a deeper understanding of growth processes (Aponte & Flores, 2013;Borthagaray et al, 2010;Deblauwe et al, 2012;Hesse, 2012Hesse, , 2014Tlidi et al, 2018), and to our knowledge, substantial biologically relevant data are not available (Koch et al, 2019).…”

“…We The second AFLP dataset originated from a dense sampling in a 100 × 100 m grid at the Oyarbide study field. This dataset was reported previously to study geneflow and small-scale genetic differentiation along linearly arranged vegetation (Koch et al, 2019). For growth analysis at the Botanical Garden Heidelberg, we used six healthy individuals of T. landbeckii spp.…”

“…Samples were assigned randomly to an experimental block (96-well reaction plate). Sampling and design of AFLP dataset 2 (199 individuals) were based on AFLP dataset 1 and were reported previously (Koch et al, 2019). This dataset consists of three additional selective primer combinations: (D)…”

“…Atacama Desert, Chile, genetic diversity, hyperaridity, local adaptation, loma vegetation, Tillandsia their survival in a hyperarid environment for thousands of years (Koch et al, 2019;Merklinger et al, 2020). Genetic diversity in T. landbeckii can be maintained by different strategies because the species easily clonally propagates with shoot offsets, but also geneflow via pollen and subsequent seed dispersal maintains and continuously creates genetic diversity (Merklinger et al, 2020).…”