Biogeographical dynamics of plant taxa and climate-landscape history of the Eurasian steppe belt: Genes documenting history
Abstract
The Eurasian steppe, consisting of the Euro-Siberian part in the west and the Mongol-Chinese part in the east, is the largest steppe region in the Northern Hemisphere. It stretches across 8000 km between the Pannonian Basin and the Amur and has some smaller exclaves in Middle Europe and northeastern Asia. Based mainly on macrofossils of vertebrates it is assumed that the formation of the steppe started in the Lower Miocene in Asia and extended westwards in the Middle to Upper Miocene, so that a continuous steppe belt was probably present at the Miocene/Pliocene boundary, latest at the end of the Pliocene. Pristine steppe habitats were widely transformed into agricultural landscapes, while secondary steppe originated in Europe after opening of the dominating forests due to human influence. We propose to apply phylogeographic and biogeographic methods on typical and widespread steppe indicator species to understand the geographic origin and the climate-landscape history of the Eurasian steppe belt. Our focal point is the western Eurasian steppe belt, which is the Euro-Siberian steppe. Especially during the Quaternary climate macro-cycles, the steppe faced extensive range shift, range contractions and expansions. We intend to comparatively analyze 15 diverse plant species/species groups with molecular-systematic methods (sequencing of nuclear genes, and genome-wide SNP analysis through GBS) and analyze the data with phylogenetic and phylogeographic methods (dated phylogenies, Bayesian and maximum-likelihood methods on biogeography reconstruction). Thus we want to trace past and ongoing in-situ evolution in expanding and/or subdividing steppe habitats, as well as identify times of intense speciation (or lack thereof) due to climate or geographical changes or stasis, influencing western Eurasia from Miocene till present.
Euro-Siberian steppe Biogeography Phylogeography Genotyping-by-sequencing Single-nucleotide polymorphism
Publikationen
Phylogenetic analysis of the steppe plant Krascheninnikovia ceratoides
Autoren: Seidl, A., Tremetsberger, K., Bernhardt, K.-G. Jahr: 2018
Journal articles
Project staff
Karl Georg Bernhardt
Univ.-Prof. i.R. Dipl.Geograph Dr. Karl Georg Bernhardt
karl-georg.bernhardt@boku.ac.at
Tel: +43 1 47654-83111
Project Leader
01.06.2017 - 31.05.2022
Karin Tremetsberger
Priv.-Doz. Mag. Dr. Karin Tremetsberger
karin.tremetsberger@boku.ac.at
Tel: +43 1 47654-83113
Sub Projectleader
01.06.2017 - 31.05.2022
BOKU partners
External partners
Leibniz-Institut für Pflanzengenetik und Kulturpflanzenforschung (IPK)
Frank Blattner
partner
Universität Osnabrück
Barbara Neuffer, Nikolai Friesen, Herbert Hurka
partner