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Transcribing molecular and climatic data into conservation management for the Himalayan endangered species, Taxus contorta (Griff.)

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Abstract

Owing to the changing climatic scenario globally, and human overexploitation, the risk of extinction of Himalayan endangered species has increased many folds. Taxus contorta, an endangered gymnosperm has reached a decisive state in the Western Himalayas, thus, demands immediate attention to rescue it. This study aims to elucidate population and landscape genetics of T. contorta to plan a successful conservation strategy. We used SSR genotyping to identify genetic diversity hotspots, and ecological niche modeling to reveal climatic hotspots of T. contorta in the Indian Western Himalayas. We observed a substantial genetic diversity, and a negligible level of inbreeding among T. contorta populations. A genetic bottleneck was observed in several populations. We propose that changing climate can cause a failure of an entire conservation management plan if the shift produces a degraded environment in the future, at the sites of conservation. Further, the conservation management is futile if it fails to enhance or conserve the genetic diversity. We propound that use of germplasm from genetic diversity hotspots for propagation in climatic hotspots, and prioritization of these hotspot patches for conservation would ensure greater genetic variability under a safe environment. This integrative approach of translating molecular and climatic data into conservation planning would save our efforts, time, and capital investment, and ensure greater success in managing the revival of T. contorta in the Western Himalayas.

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No nucleic acid sequence data was generated in this manuscript.

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Acknowledgements

This study was financially supported by MoEF & CC (Ministry of Environment and Forests & Climate Change), India under the Grant NMHS/SG-2016/011. Aasim Majeed acknowledges CSIR New Delhi for their financial assistance during the PhD programme. The authors are grateful to the associate editor and the reviewers for their constructive criticism and valuable suggestion, which proved useful in rectifying and refining this manuscript.

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  1. Molecular Genetics Laboratory, Department of Botany, Central University of Punjab, City Campus, Mansa Road, Bathinda, 151001, India

    Aasim Majeed, Amandeep Singh & Pankaj Bhardwaj

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  1. Aasim Majeed
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  2. Amandeep Singh
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  3. Pankaj Bhardwaj
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Contributions

PB conceived and organized the study. AM carried out sampling, wet lab experiments, computational analysis and wrote the manuscript. AS participated in sampling, nucleic acid isolation and genotyping. PB further edited and finalized the manuscript. All authors have carefully read and approved the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Pankaj Bhardwaj.

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Majeed, A., Singh, A. & Bhardwaj, P. Transcribing molecular and climatic data into conservation management for the Himalayan endangered species, Taxus contorta (Griff.). Conserv Genet 22, 53–66 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10592-020-01319-w

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