Genetic structure of coastal and inland populations of the annual halophyte Suaeda maritima (L.) dumort. in Central Europe, inferred from amplified fragment length polymorphism markers.

Naturally occurring inland salt habitats are highly threatened due to increasing fragmentation and area reduction, while the surroundings of former potash mining dumps have experienced a massive invasion by halophytes over the last 20 years. We reconstructed colonisation patterns of these purely anthropogenic inland salt sites using molecular markers in the obligate halophyte Suaeda maritima (L.) dumort. (Chenopodiaceae), a typical plant in such areas. In the present study, 120 individual plants from 40 coastal and inland populations in Central Europe were subjected to AFLP analysis with nine primer combinations. A total of 243 AFLP band positions were scored as presence/absence characters. Genetic diversity values were not significantly different in populations from natural and anthropogenic inland salt sites as compared to coastal habitats. Results from principal coordinate analysis, neighbour-joining analysis and analysis of molecular variance (amova) all indicated that most of the genetic variation is preserved within populations, while genetic differentiation among populations is comparatively low. We conclude that S. maritima has repeatedly and independently colonised the surroundings of former potash mining dumps in Central Germany. However, the absence of founder effects and the lack of phylogeographic structure prevented us from identifying putative donor populations.