Isolation-by-environment and its consequences for range shifts with
global change: landscape genomics of the invasive plant common tansy
Abstract
Invasive species are a growing global economic and ecological problem.
However, it is not well understood how environmental factors mediate
invasive range expansion. In this study, we investigated the recent and
rapid range expansion of common tansy across environmental gradients in
Minnesota, U.S.A. We densely sampled individuals across the expanding
range and performed reduced representation sequencing to generate a
dataset of 3071 polymorphic loci for 176 individuals. We used
non-spatial and spatially-explicit analyses to determine the relative
influences of geographic distance and environmental variation on
patterns of genomic variation. We found no evidence for
isolation-by-distance (IBD) but strong evidence for
isolation-by-environment (IBE), indicating that environmental factors
may have modulated patterns of range expansion. Land use classification
and soils were particularly important variables related to population
structure although they operated on different spatial scales; land-use
classification was related to broad-scale patterns and soils were
related to fine-scale patterns. All analyses indicated a distinctive
genetic cluster in the most recently invaded portion of the range.
Individuals from the far northwestern range margin were separated from
the remainder of the range by reduced migration, which was associated
with environmental resistance. This portion of the range was invaded
primarily in the last 15 years. Ecological niche models also indicated
that this cluster was associated with expansion of the niche. While
invasion is often assumed to be primarily influenced by dispersal
limitation, our results suggest that ongoing invasion and range shifts
with climate change may be strongly affected by environmental
heterogeneity.