Abstract Detail

Systematics Section/ASPT

Spalink, Daniel [1], Léveillé-Bourret, Étienne [2], Starr, Julian [3], Sytsma, Kenneth J. [4].

Patching a persisting paraphyly in Cyperaceae: divergent geographical, morphological, and ecological evolution in the bulrushes (Scirpus) and cotton-grasses (Eriophorum).

The Scirpus-Eriophorum (Cyperaceae) complex is an ideal clade to test hypotheses regarding the timing and directionality of migration throughout the Holarctic, the historical processes resulting in either circumboreal (Eriophorum) or disjunct, eastern Asian-eastern North American distributions (Scirpus), and the evolution of morphological and physiological traits associated with arctic climates. However, our ability to test these hypotheses has been hindered by taxonomic confusion and the lack of a well-sampled and resolved phylogeny for this clade. Here, we present the most densely sampled phylogeny of Scirpus and Eriophorum to date, utilizing chloroplast, nuclear ribosomal, and low copy nuclear genes in conjunction with over 60,000 SNPs recovered from nearly 10 billion bases of next generation sequencing data. Our analyses recover unprecedented resolution to the relationships among the bulrushes and cotton grasses. We complement our extensive molecular dataset with both traditional and geometric morphometric analyses. We reconstruct the ancestral biogeography of Scirpus and Eriophorum, demonstrating that the relictual eastern North America – eastern Asia disjunct pattern characterizing Scirpus is the result of both “out of America” and “out of Asia” migrations across the North Atlantic and Beringian land bridges. We highlight the evolutionary shifts and accompanying adaptations in Eriophorum potentially associated with its shift to boreal and arctic climates and persistence throughout the northern hemisphere. Finally, we harness these data to test a suite of possible new classification scenarios for Scirpus and Eriophorum, and set a conceptual framework for eventual revision.

1 - University Of Wisconsin-Madison, Department Of Botany, 430 Lincoln Drive, Madison, WI, 53706, USA
2 - University of Ottawa, Biology, 30 Marie Curie, Ottawa, Ontario, K1N 6N5, Canada
3 - University of Ottawa, Biology, Gendron Hall, Room 160, 30 Marie Curie, Ottawa, ON, K1N 6N5, Canada
4 - University of Wisconsin, Department of Botany, 430 Lincoln Drive, Madison, WI, 53706, USA

Keywords:
Cyperaceae
genotyping by sequencing
biogeography
Niche evolution
Trait evolution
Scirpus
Eriophorum
Morphometrics
elliptic Fourier analysis.

Presentation Type: Oral Paper:Papers for Sections
Session: 50
Location: Salon 10/The Shaw Conference Centre
Date: Tuesday, July 28th, 2015
Time: 3:00 PM
Number: 50007
Abstract ID:1137
Candidate for Awards:None