Genome-environment associations along elevation gradients in two snowbed species of the North-Eastern Calcareous Alps

Abstract

Background: Anthropogenic climate change leads to increasing temperatures and altered precipitation and snowmelt patterns, especially in alpine ecosystems. To understand species’ responses to climate change, assessment of genetic structure and diversity is crucial as the basis for the evaluation of migration patterns, genetic adaptation potential as well as the identification of adaptive alleles. Results: We studied genetic structure, diversity and genome-environment associations of two snowbed species endemic to the Eastern Alps with a large elevational range, Achillea clusiana Tausch and Campanula pulla L. Genotyping-by-sequencing was employed to assemble loci de novo, call variants and perform population genetic analyses. Populations of either species were distinguishable by mountain, and to some extent by elevation. We found evidence for gene flow between elevations. Results of genome-environment associations suggested similar selective pressures acting on both species, emanating mainly from precipitation and exposition rather than temperature. Conclusions: Given their genetic structure and amount of gene flow among populations the two study species are suitable to serve as a model for genetic monitoring of climate change adaptation along an elevation gradient. Consequences of climate change will predominantly manifest via changes in precipitation and, thus, duration of snow cover in the snowbeds and indirectly via shrub encroachment accompanied by increasing shading of snowbeds at lower range margins. Assembling genomes of the study species and studying larger sample sizes and time series will be necessary to functionally characterize and validate the herein identified genomic loci putatively involved in adaptive processes.