Ecological-Genetic Studies and Conservation of Endemic <i>Quercus sideroxyla</i> (Trel.) in Central Mexico

Abstract

This study examines the distribution, ecology and genetic diversity of Quercus sideroxyla Humb. Bonpl, with an emphasis on its conservation on the Natural Protected Area of Sierra Fría in North Central Mexico. Twenty-nine locations were selected, and in each location, one plot of 1500 m 2 was established. At every location, we obtained an abundance of Q. sideroxyla and a basal area for each individual tree, including geographical and climatological data. We used the Outlying Mean Index (OMI) to examine whether environmental conditions had a distributional effect on Q. sideroxyla populations and to obtain the static size population structure of the species. For the genetic analysis, we collected 18 adult individuals from each population, four polymorphic loci were used to estimate genetic diversity. Q. sideroxyla abundance was associated with narrow environmental conditions, especially when considering the topographical and meteorological environmental variables. The allelic richness value was 84 alleles (21 privatealleles), and the expected mean heterozygosity was 0.855 ± 0.009. The high vulnerability of the species to changes in the land use at the local scale and to global climatic changes increases the species’ susceptibility to local disappearance.