Maintenance of genetic diversity in a small, isolated population of ancient tree Erythrophleum fordii

Abstract

Ancient trees remaining in natural areas from once widespread forest due to overexploitation and habitat modification would naturally regenerate to form small isolated populations after the halting of disturbance. The genetic processes and consequence of this regeneration are generally unknown, which prevents the effective conservation and management of these populations. One such population, an Erythrophleum fordii population, is located in Dinghushan National Nature Reserve (China). Owing to the remarkably huge trunk of the sole ancient tree (KG) relative to the other individuals in the population, the local people and local tourism administration presume that this population has developed solely from KG. We found, using genetic diversity analyses, that contrary to this presumption, the population might have regenerated from several founders with diverse genetic backgrounds. Severe degradation of genetic diversity within the population did not take place, rather, it possessed the potential ability to maintain and recover gradually with population development. According to the results of simulations, we found that the longevity of tree species with iteroparity offers the potential to maintain genetic diversity in small isolated populations. The results from this study will benefit the restoration and conservation of the endangered species E. fordii, and of other congener species and tree species with similar life history traits.

Endangered but genetically stable—Erythrophleum fordii within Feng Shui woodlands in suburbanized villages

“…Such random mating also existed in the well‐preserved population of DH Mountain whose f value was 0.0082 (Table ). This is consistent with our previous data with f values of −0.058 to 0.022 in different age classes in the population of DH Mountain (Zhu et al, ). Since E .…”

“…fordii in one well‐preserved population using nine microsatellites in the DH Mountain, a nature reserve. Although our previous study reported higher genetic diversity in the DH Mountain (a H O of 0.606 and H E of 0.586, Zhu et al, ) than all the Feng Shui populations we investigated here, our present study using a new set of microsatellites indicated this was not the case (Table ). In fact, the genetic diversity of the population of DH Mountain was only significantly higher than that of the population of WYG village in A P value (Table ).…”

“…Zhu, Wang, Ye, and Cao () and Zhu, Wang, Ye, Cao, and Saravanan () have described E. fordii in detail. Briefly, E. fordii is a legume species, belonging to the family Fabaceae.…”

“…Its seed is flat and ovate‐shaped, large and heavy with 1.54–1.67 cm long, 1.28–1.43 cm wide, 0.784–0.917 g in weight (Zhao et al, ). It is inedible and has no wing and no particular attributes to attract animals; therefore, it is believed to be dispersed by gravity (Zhu et al, ).…”

“…DH Mountain was the first nature reserve in China (Zhu et al, ), and the E. fordii population in it is believed to be well preserved. According to Zhu et al (), there were a total of 528 E. fordii individuals including 78 with DBH ≥15 cm. Therefore, we used it as the basis to compare the highly disturbed populations in the Feng Shui woodlands.…”