Speaker
Description
Arable land undoubtedly is the most important habitat class covering >1/3 of cultural landscapes such as in Central Europe. Segetal plants can contribute substantially to biodiversity and provide food sources e.g. for insect pollinators or herbivores. However, agricultural intensification has driven a massive decline in phytodiversity over the last decades. In contrast to for example meadows and forests, conservation efforts are still very limited for arable land. In Germany, potential restauration action is under legal control with respect to seed transfer zones (STZs) that ensure regionality of accessions. These STZs are based on general (bio)geographical parameters, and presently do not capture interspecific genetic variation. Understanding population genomic structure thus is critical for restauration efforts but such data are hardly available for segetal species. In consequence, the widely planted flower strips comprise relatively cheap crop mixtures of non-regional populations, rather than regional material from wild populations.
Our project aims to investigate population genomics of seven common, nine rare and five critically endangered segetal species across Germany using the high throughput sequencing technique ddRADseq. Our analyses revealed strong genetic fragmentation and low genetic diversity within populations of critically endangered segetal species (e.g. Bupleurum rotundifolium, Euphorbia falcata and Stachys annua). In rare species (e.g. Valerianella dentata, Odontites vernus and Agrostemma githago), geographical structures were present but not captured by the current STZs. Common species (e.g. Anagallis arvensis and Thlaspi arvense) lacked any genetic structure and showed high gene flow between populations.
| Status Group | Doctoral Researcher |
|---|---|
| Poster Presentation Option | No, I prefer to present only as a talk. |
