Evolution of North American Cattails
Typha latifolia (broad leaf cattail) and Typha angustifolia (narrow leaf cattail)
I am researching how past and recent evolutionary history influenced current distribution and genetic diversity in cattails.
Cattails are common wetland plants with expanding geographic ranges over the last 150 years. Likely, the co-occurence of two cattail species and their hybrid T.x glauca triggered cattail invasiveness around the Great Lakes spreading westwards, but the causes of invasion shall be further investigated beyond their current distribution.
In North America, cattail origins are uncertain: T. latifolia is recognised as being native and T. angustifolia was considered introduced in the early 1600 from Europe, but recent polen findings attest its presence in North America since Holocene. Moreover, pollen and old herbaria records up to 18th century did not find invasive dynamic trends in geographic distribution of cattails.
Invasion started more recently and probably the latter introductions of non-native cattail lineages occured somehow before 1892 when T.x glauca hybrid has been discovered.
To find evidence of multiple introductions of non-native cattail lineages, I will sequence and genotype herbaria samples from early 1900 across North America and Europe and compare them to the contemporary genotypes preferably collected from the same sites. I will further map the genotype geographic distribution and search for similar genetic signatures of potential sources of introduction. In this way, I would reconstruct patterns of migration, dispersal, colonization and hybridization to explain past, actual and future invasion dynamics of North American cattails.
Cattails are common wetland plants with expanding geographic ranges over the last 150 years. Likely, the co-occurence of two cattail species and their hybrid T.x glauca triggered cattail invasiveness around the Great Lakes spreading westwards, but the causes of invasion shall be further investigated beyond their current distribution.
In North America, cattail origins are uncertain: T. latifolia is recognised as being native and T. angustifolia was considered introduced in the early 1600 from Europe, but recent polen findings attest its presence in North America since Holocene. Moreover, pollen and old herbaria records up to 18th century did not find invasive dynamic trends in geographic distribution of cattails.
Invasion started more recently and probably the latter introductions of non-native cattail lineages occured somehow before 1892 when T.x glauca hybrid has been discovered.
To find evidence of multiple introductions of non-native cattail lineages, I will sequence and genotype herbaria samples from early 1900 across North America and Europe and compare them to the contemporary genotypes preferably collected from the same sites. I will further map the genotype geographic distribution and search for similar genetic signatures of potential sources of introduction. In this way, I would reconstruct patterns of migration, dispersal, colonization and hybridization to explain past, actual and future invasion dynamics of North American cattails.