Little hope for the polyploid endemic Pyrenean Larkspur (Delphinium montanum)

Members of LGDP (UMR 5096 – CNRS/UPVD), in association with researchers from Federation of Catalan Nature Reserves, showed in an article published in Ecology & Evolution in March 2022, that among different threats, it is however climate change that could give the ‘coup de grâce’ to this species.

Little hope for the Pyrenean Larkspur, is in short the title and the conclusion of our study

suivi-delphinium

A population genomic approach allowed us to confirm that the few remaining populations of this plant species endemic the Eastern Pyrenees mountains are isolated from each other, like blocked on sky islands, without any real opportunity for exchanges that could naturally counteract the probable deleterious effects of inbreeding. Among the different threats, it is however climate change that could give the ‘coup de grâce’ to this species.

An ecological niche modeling approach allowed us to predict that the extent of suitable habitat of the species will dramatically decrease, perhaps by up to -75% over the two next decades, before to disappear by the end of the century.

What we can say on this species based on this study may unfortunately summarize the situation of the vegetal community or even for the ecosystem into which the Pyrenean Larkspur occurs.

Delphinium_montanum-79

See also

Pascaline Salvado, Pere Aymerich Boixader, Josep Parera, Albert Vila Bonfill, Maria Martin, Céline Quélennec, Jean-Marc Lewin, Valérie Delorme-Hinoux,J oris A. M. Bertrand
Ecology and Evolution, Volume12, March 2022, https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.8711

Modification date : 07 June 2023 | Publication date : 05 October 2022 | Redactor : TULIP Communication / Text by Joris Bertrand