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Interaction of climate, demography and genetics: a ten-year study of Brassica insularis, a narrow endemic Mediterranean species

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Abstract

Long-term demographic surveys, needed to obtain accurate information on population dynamics and efficiently manage rare species, are still very scarce. Matrix population models are useful tools to identify key demographic transitions and thus help setting up conservation actions. Furthermore, the combination of ecological, demographic and genetic data is likely to improve the identification of the threats acting upon populations and help conservation decisions. In this paper we illustrate the power of this approach on Brassica insularis, a Mediterranean endemic plant species, rare and endangered in Corsica (France). In four populations of this species, a long-term demographic survey (2000–2009), genetic analyses (in 2000 and 2009) and survey of ecological variables (climatic variables, competition and herbivory) were performed. By using both deterministic and stochastic matrix model analyses, we assessed the viability of each population and tested for both spatial and temporal variations in demographic vital rates. Populations exhibited differing demographic behaviours and environmental stochasticity occurred in populations. Significant correlations between climatic variables and vital rates were detected. Stochastic simulations suggested that three out of the four populations studied might present a high risk of extinction on the short-term and should actively be managed, or at least surveyed. It could be, however, that two of these populations are experiencing density-dependent regulation, rather than being declining. Microsatellite diversity was slightly reduced in a single population and similar in the three others, consistently with expectations based on population census size and geographic area, as well as with diversity at the S-locus observed in 2000. The combination of all data led to specific recommendations for managing each population. We discuss the implications for conservation of such a general approach.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Agnès Vivat and Sheila Luijten for their help in the field, Eric Imbert for his help in the field and for his comments on a first version of the manuscript. We also thank Olivier Gimenez for his help and discussion on statistical analyses. We thank two anonymous reviewers for very helpful comments and suggestions. We benefited from discussions of the NESCENT-NCEAS Working Group on Genetic Monitoring. Finally, we had insightful discussions about this work at several meetings of the ESF Science Networking Programme ConGen. This is publication ISEM-2010-001 of the Institut des Sciences de l’Evolution.

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  1. Institut des Sciences de l’Evolution de Montpellier (ISEM), UMR 5554 CNRS, Université Montpellier 2, 34095, Montpellier Cedex 05, France

    Florence Noël, Sandrine Maurice, Agnès Mignot, Sylvain Glémin, David Carbonell, Fabienne Justy, Isabelle Olivieri & Christophe Petit

  2. Conservatoire du littoral, 3 rue Luce de Casabianca, 20200, Bastia, France

    Isabelle Guyot

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  1. Florence Noël
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  2. Sandrine Maurice
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  3. Agnès Mignot
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  4. Sylvain Glémin
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Correspondence to Isabelle Olivieri.

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Sandrine Maurice and Agnès Mignot have contributed equally to this work.

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Noël, F., Maurice, S., Mignot, A. et al. Interaction of climate, demography and genetics: a ten-year study of Brassica insularis, a narrow endemic Mediterranean species. Conserv Genet 11, 509–526 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10592-010-0056-1

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