Short stories from Sphagnum of rare species, taxonomy, and speciation

Abstract

Conserving species and their genetic variation are a global priority to safeguard evolu-tionary potential in a rapidly changing world. Species are fundamental units in research and nature management, but taxonomic work is increasingly undermined. Increasing knowledge on the species genetic diversity would aid in prioritizing conservation ef -forts. Sphagnum is a diverse, well- known bryophyte genus, which makes the genus suited to study speciation and cryptic variation. The species share specific character-istics and can be difficult to separate in the field. By combining molecular data with thorough morphological examination, new species have recently been discovered. Still, there are taxonomic uncertainties, even for species assessed on the IUCN Red List of threatened species. Here, we use molecular data to examine three rare species within the subgenus Acutifolia described based on morphological characters. All spe -cies have narrow distributions and limited dispersability. First, we confirm the genetic origin of S. skyense. Second, we show that S. venustum is a haploid species genetically distinct from morphologically similar species. Lastly, S. nitidulum was found to have a distinct haplotype, but cannot be genetically separated from other red Acutifoliaspecies. We also found high genetic variation within red Acutifolia specimens, indicat -ing the need of further morphological examination and possibly taxonomic revision. Until then, our results have shown that genetic data can aid in prioritizing targets of conservation efforts when taxonomy is unresolved. All three taxa should be further searched for by field biologists to increase knowledge about their distribution ranges. genetic structure, microsatellites, molecular data, morphology, peatmosses, speciation, species identification, Taxonomy