An alpine plant shows no decrease in genetic diversity associated with rapid post-glacial range expansion

While range expansion is hypothesized to be a mechanism for species persistence under climate change, many eco-evolutionary models describe demographic and genetic processes during expansion that may increase genetic drift, decrease genetic variation, and ultimately decrease relative fitness at the leading edge. These predictions assume dispersal occurs from the low-density leading edge during colonization, common in post-glacial expansion at the continental scale (~20,000 years ago), but relatively understudied on contemporary timescales, like alpine glacier recession since the end of the Little Ice Age (~150 years ago).

We use the native alpine plant Erythranthe (Mimulus) lewisii to quantify neutral genetic diversity (single nucleotide polymorphisms) and infer signatures of genetic drift across two contemporary instances of range expansion on alpine glacier forelands in Garibaldi Provincial Park, BC, Canada, by testing for the presence of signatures of increased genetic differentiation and decreased genetic variation toward the contemporary range edge relative to the historical range core over space and time.

We find weak support for the prediction of increasing genetic differentiation toward the range edge, and no support for decreasing genetic diversity toward the range edge. This suggests dispersal occurring primarily from the leading edge is not characterizing colonization, with the implication that potential relative reductions in range-edge fitness due to range expansion as predicted by theory are likely not applicable in nature at this spatiotemporal scale.

Together, our results suggest that demographic dynamics of colonization following alpine glacier retreat do not result in the loss of genetic diversity over space and time.