Species limits and cryptic biogeographic structure in a widespread complex of Australian monsoon tropics trees (broad-leaf paperbarks: Melaleuca, Myrtaceae)
Robert D. Edwards
A D , Michael D. Crisp B and Lyn G. Cook C
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations
A US National Herbarium, Department of Botany, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, 10th Street and Constitution Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20013-7012, USA.
B Evolution, Ecology and Genetics, Research School of Biology, The Australian National University, Banks Building, Daley Road, Acton, ACT 2601, Australia.
C The University of Queensland, School of Biological Sciences, Goddard Building, Mansfield Place, Saint Lucia, Qld 4072, Australia.
D Corresponding author. Email: bortedwards@gmail.com
Australian Systematic Botany 31(6) 495-503 https://doi.org/10.1071/SB18032
Submitted: 8 May 2018 Accepted: 28 September 2018 Published: 13 December 2018
Abstract
The Australian monsoon tropics are currently dominated by savanna and tropical woodland biomes that have arisen in response to a cooling and drying trend within the past ~3 million years. It is expected that organisms well adapted to these conditions have expanded into available habitats, leading to the differentiation of populations and species across this landscape, a process that could be magnified by the presence of several biogeographic barriers. The broad-leaved paperbark (Melaleuca leucadendra (L.) L.) complex is one such group of plants, with 14 poorly morphologically differentiated species occupying large overlapping distributions across the region, and across several recognised biogeographic barriers. Using phylogenetic and network analyses of nuclear and plastid sequences, we tested species limits among currently described species within the complex and for phylogeographic structure within species across seven of these barriers. Overall, our data suggested patterns of differentiation among species consistent with the early to middle stages of incomplete lineage sorting, and evidence for an idiosyncratic cryptic response of species to biogeographic barriers. Unexpectedly, we found a deep molecular split across all species, broadly coinciding with the northern part of the Great Dividing Range, a feature not typically considered to be a barrier to dispersal. Our study has offered one of the first insights into the dynamics within and among widespread species across the north of Australia, suggesting considerably more geographic structure than was previously recognised.
Additional keywords: barriers, biogeography, cryptic divergence, melaleuca, reticulation, non-monophyly, the Great Dividing Range.
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