Influence of northern limit range on genetic diversity and structure in a widespread North American tree, sugar maple (Acer saccharum Marshall).

ABSTRACT: Due to climate change, the ranges of many North American tree species are expected to shift northward. Sugar maple (Acer saccharum Marshall) reaches its northern continuous distributional limit in northeastern North America at the transition between boreal mixed-wood and temperate deciduous forests. We hypothesized that marginal fragmented northern populations from the boreal mixed wood would have a distinct pattern of genetic structure and diversity. We analyzed variation at 18 microsatellite loci from 23 populations distributed along three latitudinal transects (west, central, and east) that encompass the continuous-discontinuous species range. Each transect was divided into two zones, continuous (temperate deciduous) and discontinuous (boreal mixed wood), based on sugar maple sta

SUBMITTER: Graignic N 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5838051 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature