Biology Commons^™

Integrating Environmental, Molecular, And Morphological Data To Unravel An Ice-Age Radiation Of Arctic-Alpine Campanula In Western North America, Eric G. Dechaine, Barry M. Wendling, Brenna R. Forester

Biology Faculty and Staff Publications

Many arctic-alpine plant genera have undergone speciation during the Quaternary. The bases for these radiations have been ascribed to geographic isolation,abiotic and biotic differences between populations, and/or hybridization andpolyploidization. The Cordilleran Campanula L. (Campanulaceae Juss.), a monophyletic clade of mostly endemic arctic-alpine taxa from western North America, experienced a recent and rapid radiation. We set out to unravel the factors that likely influenced speciation in this group. To do so, we integrated environmental, genetic, and morphological datasets, tested biogeographic hypotheses, and analyzed the potential consequences of the various factors on the evolutionary history of the clade. We created paleodistribution models …