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Population genetic structure and demographic history of the timber tree Dicorynia guianensis in French Guiana

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Julien Bonnier
Julien Bonnier
Julien Bonnier
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Niklas Tysklind at French National Institute for Agriculture, Food, and Environment (INRAE)
Niklas Tysklind
Valerie Troispoux at French National Institute for Agriculture, Food, and Environment (INRAE)
Valerie Troispoux
Ivan Scotti at French National Institute for Agriculture, Food, and Environment (INRAE)
Ivan Scotti
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Abstract and Figures

Tropical rainforests host exceptional biodiversity and provide important ecosystem services, but they are facing anthropogenic and climatic threats. Preserving the genetic diversity of forest tree populations is essential for their capacity to adapt and exhibit resilience to environmental changes and anthropogenic pressures. Here, we collected conservation genetic baseline information for the heavily exploited timber tree Dicorynia guianensis Amshoff (Fabaceae) at the regional and local levels in French Guiana. Based on genotyping at five microsatellite loci in 1566 individuals collected in 23 forest locations, we documented the genetic differentiation of locations from the West of French Guiana and identified distinctive genetic diversity patterns with higher genetic diversity and some bottlenecked sites in the East and inland. The regional population genetic structure is likely the result of past population isolation in distinct Pleistocene refuges and different demographic histories potentially influenced by Holocene drought periods or palaeofires. Assessment of spatial genetic structure (Sp from 0 to 0.028) in five intensively sampled locations yielded estimates of Wright’s neighborhood size of 35 to 313, indicative of restricted dispersal and local metapopulation dynamics, and useful as baseline information to assess the effects of selective logging for conservation management. These results support the current management strategies with low impact extraction of D. guianensis in three zones of the French Guiana permanent forest domain and allow us to make recommendations for further research and management to best preserve its genetic diversity and adaptive potential.
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Vol.:(0123456789)
1 3
Tree Genetics & Genomes (2024) 20:2
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11295-023-01633-7
ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Population genetic structure anddemographic history ofthetimber
tree Dicorynia guianensis inFrench Guiana
JulienBonnier1,2 · NiklasTysklind2 · ValérieTroispoux2 · IvanScotti3 · StéphanieBarthe4·
OlivierBrunaux5 · StéphaneGuitet5 · StéphaneTraissac2 · MyriamHeuertz1
Received: 18 January 2023 / Revised: 26 November 2023 / Accepted: 4 December 2023 / Published online: 26 December 2023
© The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2023
Abstract
Tropical rainforests host exceptional biodiversity and provide important ecosystem services, but they are facing anthropo-
genic and climatic threats. Preserving the genetic diversity of forest tree populations is essential for their capacity to adapt
and exhibit resilience to environmental changes and anthropogenic pressures. Here, we collected conservation genetic base-
line information for the heavily exploited timber tree Dicorynia guianensis Amshoff (Fabaceae) at the regional and local
levels in French Guiana. Based on genotyping at five microsatellite loci in 1566 individuals collected in 23 forest locations,
we documented the genetic differentiation of locations from the West of French Guiana and identified distinctive genetic
diversity patterns with higher genetic diversity and some bottlenecked sites in the East and inland. The regional population
genetic structure is likely the result of past population isolation in distinct Pleistocene refuges and different demographic
histories potentially influenced by Holocene drought periods or palaeofires. Assessment of spatial genetic structure (Sp from
0 to 0.028) in five intensively sampled locations yielded estimates of Wright’s neighborhood size of 35 to 313, indicative of
restricted dispersal and local metapopulation dynamics, and useful as baseline information to assess the effects of selective
logging for conservation management. These results support the current management strategies with low impact extraction
of D. guianensis in three zones of the French Guiana permanent forest domain and allow us to make recommendations for
further research and management to best preserve its genetic diversity and adaptive potential.
Keywords Tropical tree· Microsatellites· Genetic diversity· Neighborhood size· Conservation· Dicorynia guianensis
Introduction
Tropical rainforests occur in wet tropical habitats around the
equator, with the largest ones found in South America, West-
ern Equatorial Africa, and Southeast Asia. They represent
the world’s most complex and biodiverse terrestrial ecosys-
tems with a total area estimated at 12 million km2 harboring
a continuous canopy of tall trees (Gay 2001; Leigh Jr etal.
2004). There are an estimated 16,000 species of trees in the
Amazon lowland rainforest (ter Steege etal. 2013). Rainfor-
ests provide many ecosystem services that play a vital role
in the survival and quality of life of humans and other spe-
cies, e.g., the purification of air and water and the mitigation
of floods and droughts (Ambe and Onnoghen 2019). Many
rainforest regions around the globe are under acute threat of
habitat and biodiversity loss because of agricultural develop-
ment, mining, overexploitation of timber and non-timber for-
est products, and climate change (Alfaro etal. 2014; Roberts
etal. 2017). Genetic diversity within species is paramount
Communicated by N. Tomaru.
* Myriam Heuertz
myriam.heuertz@inrae.fr
1 BIOGECO, INRAE, Univ. Bordeaux, 69 Route d’Arcachon,
33610Cestas, France
2 ECOFOG, INRAE, Agroparistech, CNRS, Cirad, Université
Des Antilles, Univ. de La Guyane, 97310Kourou,
FrenchGuiana
3 Ecologie Des Forêts Méditerranéennes, URFM, INRAE,
84000Avignon, France
4 Office Français de La Biodiversité, Unité
Technique Connaissance, Campus Agronomique,
BP316–97319Kouroucedex, FrenchGuiana
5 ONF, R&D, Réserve de Montabo, BP 7002,
97307CayenneCedex, FrenchGuiana
Content courtesy of Springer Nature, terms of use apply. Rights reserved.
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