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Journal of Plant Ecology Advance Access published online on September 7, 2009
Journal of Plant Ecology, doi:10.1093/jpe/rtp017
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© The Author 2009. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Botanical Society of China. All rights reserved. For permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

On the relationship between plant species diversity and genetic diversity of Plantago lanceolata (Plantaginaceae) within and between grassland communities

Nidal Odat1,2, Frank H. Hellwig3, Gottfried Jetschke1 and Markus Fischer4

1 Institute of Ecology, Friedrich-Schiller-University, Dornburger Straße 159, 07743 Jena, Germany
2 Department of Biology, Al-Hussein Bin Talal University, PO Box 20, Ma'an, Jordan
3 Institute of Systematic Botany, Friedrich-Schiller-University, Philosophenweg 16, D-07743 Jena, Germany
4 Institute of Plant Sciences, University of Bern, Altenbergrain 21, CH-3013 Bern, Switzerland

* Correspondence address. Institute of Plant Sciences, University of Bern, Altenbergrain 21, CH-3013 Bern, Switzerland. Tel: +41-31-631-4943; Fax: +41-31-631- 4942; E-mail: markus.fischer{at}ips.unibe.ch

Aims and Methods: The relationship between genetic diversity and species diversity and the underlying mechanisms are of both fundamental and applied interest. We used amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) and vegetation records to investigate the association between genetic diversity of Plantago lanceolata and plant species diversity using 15 grassland communities in central Germany. We used correlation and partial correlation analyses to examine whether relationships between genetic and species diversity were direct or mediated by environmental differences between habitats.

Important Findings: Both within- and between-population genetic diversity of P. lanceolata were significantly positively correlated with plant species diversity within and between sites. Simple and partial correlations revealed that the positive correlations indirectly resulted from the effects of abiotic habitat characteristics on plant species diversity and, via abundance, on genetic diversity of P. lanceolata. Thus, they did not reflect a direct causal relationship between plant species diversity and genetic diversity of P. lanceolata, as would have been expected based on the hypothesis of a positive relationship between plant species diversity and niche diversity.

Keywords: AFLP • beta diversity • biodiversity • conservation • ecological niche • genetic diversity • species richness


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