Use of distance measures to assess environmental and genetic variability across sagebrush hybrid zones

Abstract

Reciprocal transplant studies in the big sagebrush hybrid zone at Salt Creek Canyon, Utah, showed that hybrids between basin (Artemisia tridentata ssp. tridentata) and mountain big sagebrush (A. t. ssp. vaseyana) are more fit than either parental taxon, but only when raised in the hybrid zone. Hybrids are less fit than the native parent when raised in the parental environments. Why this is the case remains an open question. Our earlier work has shown that the hybrid zone occurs in an ecotone where the soil, vegetation, and herbivorous insect community all differ markedly from that found in the parental habitats. Moreover, the spatial variation in soil chemistry was greater in the hybrid zone than in either parental habitat. Does the enhanced genetic variation that results from hybridization allow hybrids to adapt to hyperspatial variability within the hybrid zone? Here we used Euclidean distance measures to examine this question for sagebrush hybrid zones found at Salt Creek and Clear Creek Canyons in Utah. Specifically, we examine the spatial variation in soil chemistry, vegetation, and insect communities. We also explore the interplant variability in the production of terpenes, ten elemental leaf concentrations, and the plants’ biological absorption coefficients.

Parent Publication

• Shrubland ecosystem genetics and biodiversity: proceedings

Citation

Freeman, D. Carl; Graham, John H.; Jones, Terra; Wang, Han; Miglia, Kathleen J.; McArthur, E. Durant. 2001. Use of distance measures to assess environmental and genetic variability across sagebrush hybrid zones. In: McArthur, E. Durant; Fairbanks, Daniel J., comps. Shrubland ecosystem genetics and biodiversity: proceedings; 2000 June 13-15; Provo, UT. Proc. RMRS-P-21. Ogden, UT: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station. p. 127-133.