High diversity of <Emphasis Type="Italic">Ruppia</Emphasis> meadows in saline ponds and lakes of the western Mediterranean |
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Authors: | Ludwig Triest Tim Sierens |
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Institution: | (1) Research Group ‘Plant Science and Nature Management’, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Pleinlaan 2, 1050 Brussels, Belgium |
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Abstract: | Saline inland and coastal waterbodies are valuable habitats that deserve attention for the protection of their unique submerged
macrophyte beds that render the water clear, stabilize sediments and provide a habitat for high biomasses of invertebrates
as food for waterfowl. The ‘continental seagrass’ Ruppia has the widest salinity tolerance among the submerged macrophytes and occurs in a wide variety of saline saltmarsh pond and
lagoon systems. Although two cosmopolitan species Ruppia maritima and Ruppia cirrhosa are recognized in Europe and Ruppia drepanensis in the western Mediterranean, their diversity and distribution are not well known. This previously held traditional idea
that there are only two widespread Ruppia species suggests a uniform and very homogenized population structure following the hypothesis of long-distance-dispersal
through strong bird-mediated dispersal events. Therefore, the Ruppia chloroplast DNA diversity was investigated along a more than 1,000 km transect of the Iberian Peninsula. We studied 492 individuals
from 11 wetland areas (17 ponds) and sequenced a 1,753-bp length of seven chloroplast introns. Eight haplotypes represented
at least four distinct groups or taxa which is higher than commonly accepted. Six wetland areas contained more than one haplotype
and within-pond diversity occurred within distances as small as 30 m (5 out of 17 cases). This underlines the importance of
single waterbodies for harbouring haplotypic diversity in Ruppia. Unique haplotypes were observed in four wetland areas and R. maritima was detected only from a low salinity pond, suggesting the species might be more rare than previously accepted. The present
results tend to minimize an overall effect of strong bird-mediated dispersal. This emphasizes the role of regional pond habitat
diversity for the preservation of Ruppia taxa and their unique haplotype diversity in extreme saline habitats.
Guest editors: B. Oertli, R. Cereghino, A. Hull & R. Miracle
Pond Conservation: From Science to Practice. 3rd Conference of the European Pond Conservation Network, Valencia, Spain, 14–16
May 2008. |
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Keywords: | Chloroplast DNA Phylogeography Seagrasses Coastal Conservation |
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