Extensive Sympatry and Frequent Hybridization of Ecologically Divergent Aquatic Plants on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau.

ABSTRACT: Hybridization has fascinated biologists in recent centuries for its evolutionary importance, especially in plants. Hybrid zones are commonly located in regions across environmental gradients due to more opportunities to contact and ecological heterogeneity. For aquatic taxa, intrazonal character makes broad overlapping regions in intermediate environments between related species. However, we have limited information on the hybridization pattern of aquatic taxa in alpines, especially submerged macrophytes. In this study, we aimed to test the hypotheses that niche overlap and hybridization might be extensive in related aquatic plants across an altitudinal gradient. We evaluated the niche overlap in three related species pairs on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau and assessed the spatial pattern of

SUBMITTER: Wu Z 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9135455 | biostudies-literature | 2022

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature