Abstract Detail

Recent Topics Posters

Gómez, María Camila [1], Richardson, James [2], Saarela, Jeffery M. [3], Peterson, Paul M. [4], Madriñán, Santiago [1].

Phylogeny and Biogeography of Calamagrostis páramo species (Poaceae: Pooideae) .

Páramo is known as the most biodiverse high elevation ecosystem, it is located in northern South America and southern Central America, between 3200 and 4200 meters over the sea level. Its dry mountain slopes are covered by extensive grasslands dominated by species of the genus Calamagrostis Adans. (Poaceae: Pooideae). This member of the grass family has a wide temperate distribution in the north hemisphere, going southward by the mountain ranges of Central America until the south of the continent. We obtained ITS sequences for 49 species of the genus Calamagrostis and proposed a phylogenetic hypothesis under maximum parsimony criterion and Bayesian inference. Likewise, we employed Bayesian methods for dating the obtained phylogeny. Our results show that the genus Calamagrostis is not a monophyletic group, and neither are the Páramo representatives. These are nested in two clades, a first one constituted by species with a holarctic distribution, and, a second one, constituted by species with Central American distribution. Also, the radiation of both corresponds to the big mid-Miocene radiation of the subfamily Pooideae (ca 9 million years ago). Additionally, Calamagrostis Páramo species might have arrived at least twice at the beginning of the Pliocene, the subsequent colonization of the Páramo ecosystem might have occurred in a progressive manner, employing the Andes Mountain Range as a corridor, taking advantage of the formation of new habitats in the tropics with similar conditions to the ones in temperate zones.

Broader Impacts:

1 - Universidad de los Andes, Departamento de Ciencias Biológicas, Laboratorio de Botánica y Sistemática, Apartado Aéreo 4976, Bogotá, DC, Colombia
2 - Royal Botanical Garden Edinburgh, 20a Inverleith Row, Edinburgh, EH3 5LR, United Kingdom
3 - Canadian Musuem of Nature, Research Division, P.O. Box 3443, Station D, Ottawa, ON, K1P 6P4, Canada
4 - Smithsonian, Botany, National Museum of Natural History, Washington, DC, 20013-7012, USA

Keywords:
Calamagrostis
molecular dating
ITS
Paramo.

Presentation Type: Recent Topics Poster
Session: P
Location: Hall A/Convention Center
Date: Monday, August 2nd, 2010
Time: 5:30 PM
Number: PRT002
Abstract ID:1101