Abstract Detail

Biogeography

Puppo, Pamela [1], Curto, Manuel [2], Meimberg, Harald [2].

Geology and inter-island colonization shape the diversification of Micromeria Benth. (Lamiaceae) in the Canary Islands.

Geological history of oceanic islands can have a profound effect on the evolution of insular flora. Using phylogenetic and population genetic approaches, we assessed how the diversification and genetic structure of Micromeria (Lamiaceae) in the Canary Islands have been strongly influenced by the geological history of the islands. The Canary archipelago is in the Atlantic Ocean, ca. 100 km off the coast of the north of Africa. It is composed of 7 islands, the older ones located in the east and the younger ones to the west. Among these, Tenerife has a complex geological history. During the late Miocene, three islands occupied the area of today’s Tenerife. These islands got secondarily connected during the late Miocene-Pliocene by the uplift of a fourth island in the middle of them. Today, Tenerife is composed of older areas (remnants of the three palaeo-islands, Adeje, Teno, and Anaga) and a younger, central area. Our results suggest that species of Micromeria restricted to the palaeo-islands are older lineages that evolved before the uplifting of the central shield and that the central, younger area of Tenerife was colonized from the paleo-islands. Genetic structure of the species present in Tenerife is also congruent with this complex geological history, species in the older islands are genetically different from the species in the central, younger region. Our analyses also suggest that instead of species from older islands colonizing younger islands (an East-to-West colonization), it seems that the two central islands, Tenerife and Gran Canaria, were the centers of colonization of other islands in the archipelago. It is also suggested that the different areas within Tenerife colonized different islands of the Canaries, and even colonized the nearby archipelago of Madeira. Our data also shows that colonization among islands was between similar ecological conditions, suggesting that a pre-adaptation of habitats might have facilitated colonization between similar ecological zones.

1 - Marshall University, Biological Sciences, One John Marshall Drive, 350 Science Building, Huntington, WV, 25755-2510, USA
2 - University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences (Boku), Institute for Integrative Nature Conservation Research, Gregor Mendel Str. 33, Vienna, 1080, Austria

Keywords:
Oceanic Islands
Genetic Structure
Macaronesia.

Presentation Type: Oral Paper
Session: BIOG1, Biogeography I
Location: Virtual/Virtual
Date: Tuesday, July 28th, 2020
Time: 10:45 AM
Number: BIOG1004
Abstract ID:337
Candidate for Awards:None