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Published March 31, 2023 | Version v1
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Data from: Genetic diversity in widespread species is not congruent with species richness in alpine plant communities

Creators

  • 1. Joseph Fourier University
  • 2. Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research
  • 3. University of Vienna
  • 4. University of Neuchâtel
  • 5. Polish Academy of Sciences
  • 6. University of Helsinki
  • 7. University of Regensburg
  • 8. Slovak Academy of Sciences
  • 9. Institute of Biological Research; Str. Republicii nr. 48 400015 Cluj-Napoca Romania*
  • 10. Laboratoire d'Écologie Alpine
  • 11. University of Ljubljana
  • 12. Conservatoire Botanique National Alpin - CBNA; Domaine de Charance 05000 Gap France*
  • 13. Institute of Ecology of the Carpathians N.A.S. of Ukraine; 4 Kozelnitska str. 79026 Lviv Ukraine*
  • 14. University of Trieste
  • 15. Centre National D'Etudes Spatiales
  • 16. Catholic University of the Sacred Heart
  • 17. Babeș-Bolyai University
  • 18. Group author*

Description

The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) aims at the conservation of all three levels of biodiversity, i.e. ecosystems, species and genes. Genetic diversity represents evolutionary potential and is important for ecosystem functioning. Unfortunately, genetic diversity in natural populations is hardly considered in conservation strategies because it is difficult to measure and has been hypothesized to co-vary with species richness. This means that species richness is taken as a surrogate of genetic diversity in conservation planning, though their relationship has not been properly evaluated. We tested whether the genetic and species levels of biodiversity co-vary, using a large-scale and multi-species approach. We chose the high-mountain flora of the Alps and the Carpathians as study systems and demonstrate that species richness and genetic diversity are not correlated. Species richness thus cannot act as a surrogate for genetic diversity. Our results have important consequences for implementing the CBD when designing conservation strategies.

Notes

Data on species richness and genetic diversity in high-mountain vascular plants of the Alps and the Carpathians
(i) Floristic data of vascular high-mountain plants from the Alps and the Carpathians, with occurrences of each species with a regular grid system (ii) Species-specific AFLP data (1/0 matrices) separately for samples from Alps and Carpathians, collected along the same grid system as the floristic data
Taberlet_etal_EcologyLetters2012.zip

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README_for_Taberlet_etal_EcologyLetters2012.txt

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Additional details

Related works

Is cited by
10.1111/ele.12004 (DOI)