摘要:
Anthropogenic induced climate change is predicted to alter distribution of existing plant populations. As plants migrate over space and time, populations often fragment and contract, affecting basic elements of population dynamics (e. g., population size, gene flow, genetic diversity, etc. ). Little is known, however, how these impacts on plant species will impact fungal symbionts of plants. Ectomycorrhizal (EcM) fungi are obligate symbionts of many forest trees. This is especially true for members of the Pinaceae, which are dominant members of temperate coniferous forests. In exchange for photosynthates, EcM provide numerous ecological services, including water and nutrient acquisition, to their host trees. EcM fungi can also serve as important food sources for forest animals and act as carbon sinks in forest ecosystems, and thus function as important links between primary producers and forest nutrient cycles. This dissertation used community ecology and population genomic approaches to characterize the impacts on historical climate events associated with the formation of the Madrean Sky Island Archipelago (Arizona, USA–Sonora, Mexico) on the community and population structure in the EcM genus Rhizopogon. The Madrean Sky Island Archipelago (MSIA) is a fragmented landscape of temperate plant communities that are the products of multiple retreats and contractions of these communities to higher elevations. During the Pleistocene glacial cycles (~90, 000-20, 000 years before present), temperate plant species, such as Pinus spp. were found at lower elevation forming a continuous forest across interconnected mountain ranges. Today, pine communities are only found at high elevations, isolated by a "sea" of the Sonoran Desert with limited genetic exchange among them. While there has been research conducted on the postglacial expansion of animals and plants, our understanding of populations of plant symbionts remains limited. Rhizopogon is a dominant genus of EcM that commo