Alpine lichen diversity in an isolated sky island in the Colorado Plateau, USA—Insight from an integrative biodiversity inventory
- Author:
- Leavitt S.D., Hollinger J., Summerhays S., Munger I., Allen J. & Smith B.
- Year:
- 2021
- Journal:
- Ecology and Evolution
- Pages:
- 11: 11090–11101
- Url:
- https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.7896
Lichens are major components of high altitude/latitude ecosystems. However, accurately
characterizing their biodiversity is challenging because these regions and
habitats are often underexplored, there are numerous poorly known taxonomic
groups, and morphological variation in extreme environments can yield conflicting
interpretations. Using an iterative taxonomic approach based on over 800 specimens
and incorporating both traditional morphology-based
identifications and information
from the standard fungal DNA barcoding marker, we compiled a voucher-based
inventory
of biodiversity of lichen-forming
fungi in a geographically limited and vulnerable
alpine community in an isolated sky island in the Colorado Plateau, USA—the
La Sal Mountains. We used the newly proposed Assemble Species by Automatic
Partitioning (ASAP) approach to empirically delimit candidate species-level
lineages
from family-level
multiple sequence alignments. Specimens comprising DNA-based
candidate species were evaluated using traditional taxonomically diagnostic phenotypic
characters to identify specimens to integrative species hypotheses and link
these, where possible, to currently described species. Despite the limited alpine habitat
(ca. 3,250 ha), we document the most diverse alpine lichen community known to
date from the southern Rocky Mountains, with up to 240 candidate species/species-level
lineages of lichen-forming
fungi. 139 species were inferred using integrative
taxonomy, plus an additional 52 candidate species within 29 different putative species
complexes. Over 68% of sequences could not be assigned to species-level
rank
with statistical confidence, corroborating the limited utility of current sequence repositories
for species-level
DNA barcoding of lichen-forming
fungi. By integrating
vouchered specimens, DNA sequence data, and photographic documentation, we
provide an important baseline of lichen-forming
fungal diversity for the limited alpine
habitat in the Colorado Plateau. These data provide an important resource for subsequent
research in the ecology and evolution of lichens alpine habitats, including
DNA barcodes for most putative species/species-level
lineages occurring in the La Sal Mountains, and vouchered collections representing any potentially undescribed
species that can be used for future taxonomic studies.
Keywords: ASAP, DNA barcoding, La Sal Mountains, Rocky Mountains, vouchered collections.
- Id:
- 33723
- Submitter:
- zdenek
- Post_time:
- Tuesday, 24 August 2021 16:04