The influence of animal mutualists and historical processes on the genetic structure of Levantine-Balearic populations of the ancient Mediterranean shrub Ephedra fragilis (SEAGRAPE).
The genetic structure of plant populations is as a result of historical and current biological processes affecting a particular species. The cones of
Ephedra fragilis are pollinated by wind, insects and lizards, and its seeds dispersed by birds and lizards, with the contribution of these pollination and seed-dispersal vectors varying greatly from mainland to island to islet populations. In this study, data from genetic markers (nuclear microsatellites and sequences from a chloroplastic marker) with different temporal depth resolution will be combined with GIS-based, process-driven, spatially-explicit models of pollen transport and seed dispersal to assess the relative contribution of current ecological processes (focusing on factors regulating pollination, seed dispersal) and relatively recent historical factors (within the last 5,000 years) to the genetic structure of the Levantine-Balearic populations of this ancient Mediterranean shrub.
