Genetic structure of Doronicum austriacum (Asteraceae) in the Carpathians and adjacent areas: toward a comparative phylogeographical analysis of tall-herb species

Abstract

Tall-herb communities play an important role in the vegetation of the European mountains. They are developed in humid habitats with nutrient-rich soil, from submontane to subalpine zones. As its contemporary flora consists of different geographical elements, their history, especially in relation to the climatic oscillations throughout the Pleistocene, is not straightforward. We analyze the phylogeography of Doronicum austriacum, one of the main species building Central European tall-herb communities. We additionally discuss these new data in the context of earlier phylogeographical studies of key species of tall-herb communities to compare the major patterns of their lineage distributions. The study was based on AFLP fingerprinting and DNA sequencing of sampled populations from the Carpathians and adjacent lowland, Alps, Sudetes, and Balkan Peninsula. Our results confirm the phylogeographical break between the Western and South-Eastern Carpathians as a major regional biogeographical feature. Close affinity of the Western Carpathian and Sudetes populations was also confirmed as a significant feature in common for studied tall-herb species. In contrast to the phylogeographical structure of other tall-herb species, a divergence of D. austriacum populations from the Balkan Peninsula was observed supporting the presence of divergent and taxonomically distinct lineage in the latter area. The general phylogeographical pattern indicates past survival in several distinct areas but only partly common features for the community level emerge. Finally, the history of low-elevation populations of D. austriacum at the northern margin of the distribution range remains unclear but mainly their close affinity to the forest Western Carpathian populations is suggested.