The isolated Erebia pandrose Apennine population is genetically unique and endangered by climate change

Abstract

Climate change is causing shifts in the distribution of many species and populations inhabiting mountain tops are particularly vulnerable to these threats because they are constrained in altitudinal shifts. Apennines are a relatively narrow and low mountain chain located in Southern Europe, which hosts many isolated populations of mountain species. The butterfly Erebia pandrose was recorded for the last time in the Apennines in 1977, on the top of a single massif (Monti della Laga). We confirmed the presence of a small, isolated population of E. pandrose in the Apennines, at a distance of more than 400 km to any other known populations. Then, we examined the cytochrome c oxidase subunit 1 mitochondrial DNA marker of this species across the Palaearctic area and estimated the potential decline over the Alps and the Apennines due to future climatic changes. The Apennine population represents an endemic lineage characterised by eight mutations over the 658 bp analysed (1.2%). In the Alps and Apennines, this species has shifted uphill more than 3 m per year since the end of the 19th century and more than 22 m per year since 1995. Species distribution models suggested that these mountain populations will experience a generalised loss of climatic suitability, which, according to our projections, could lead to the extinction of the Apennine population in a few decades. Erebia pandrose has the potential to become a flagship species for advertising the risk of losing unique fractions of genetic diversity for mountain species.

Climate change may cause the extinction of the butterfly Lasiommata petropolitana in the Apennines

“…Many butterfly species inhabiting relatively cold habitats were presumably more widely distributed during the last glacial maximum and in the current interglacial they shifted towards high latitudes and/or to scattered mountain areas. Examples among Holarctic butterflies are included in the genera Erebia (De Groot et al 2009;Hinojosa et al 2018;Minter et al 2020;Sistri et al 2022) and Parnassius (Ashton et al 2009;Todisco et al 2010).…”

“…Indeed, the possibility to shift towards higher elevations is clearly limited for populations inhabiting mountains, since the area of the habitats rapidly decreases with altitude (Habel et al 2011). In addition to ecological consequences of population extinction, the loss of intra-specificgenetic diversity is an important aspect to consider, since many relict populations are markedly genetically distinct from the other lineages, as a result of their protracted isolation (Schmitt et al 2005;Konvička et al 2014;Minter et al 2020;Sistri et al 2022). A high extinction risk has been predicted for several species with disjunct populations in the Apennines, such as Erebia gorge (Hübner, [1804]) (Piazzini and Favilli 2020) and Erebia pandrose (Borkhausen, 1788) (Sistri et al 2022), the latter represented by a genetically differentiated population on these mountains.…”

“…In Italy, the distribution of L. petropolitana is similar to that of other butterfly species such as Polyommatus eros (Ochsenheimer, 1808), Boloria pales ([Denis & Schiffermüller], 1775), Erebia pandrose and E. pluto (Prunner, 1798), which are widely distributed in the Alps and restricted to a few mountain areas in the Apennines. These isolated populations often represent endemic lineages responsible for a strong genetic distinctiveness between the communities of the Apennines and the Alps (Ehl et al 2020;Menchetti et al 2021;Schmitt et al 2021;Sistri et al 2022). In the Apennines, L. petropolitana only occurs in a few sites in three neighbouring massifs: Monti della Laga, Gran Sasso and Monti Marsicani (Balletto et al 2007).…”

Conservation biogeography of high‐altitude longhorn beetles under climate change

“…Anselmo, 2019; Urbani et al, 2017), and Lepidoptera (e.g. Batalden et al, 2014; Sistri et al, 2021). The basic idea of climate‐related HSMs is that of inferring the climatic niche of a species from climatic predictors occurring in its range; then, based on this relationship, future values of climatic variables can be used to predict possible future changes in species' available areas (Bellard et al, 2012; Thuiller et al, 2011).…”

Body size, not species identity, drives body heating in alpineErebiabutterflies

“…To disentangle the roles of behavioural responses and physical differences in thermoregulation, we studied adult Erebia (Nymphalidae, Satyrinae) butterflies occurring in sympatry in alpine environments. In the mountains, microclimatic conditions experienced by butterflies are changing rapidly (Stuhldreher & Fartmann, 2018) and alpine species including Erebia are endangered by climate warming (Konvicka et al, 2021; Sistri et al, 2022). Erebia butterflies have low mobility (Polic et al, 2014; Slamova et al, 2013), which probably leads to slower uphill shifts in response to climate warming compared to mobile generalist species (Rödder et al, 2021).…”