Phylogeography and population genetics of Artemisia frigida and A.scoparia

Drylands count among the most globally extensive biomes, and while many desert and dry rangeland ecosystems are under threat, genetic structures of dryland species are still rarely studied. Artemisia frigida is one of the most widely distributed plant species in the temperate rangelands of Eurasia and North America, and it also dominates in many habitats of Mongolia due to its tolerance to low temperatures, drought and disturbance. Local environmental conditions and grazing pressure can influence species performance and affect spatial patterns of genetic diversity in contrasting ways, and our study set out to evaluate such effects on the genetic diversity and structure of A. frigida. We first developed new species-specific Simple Sequence Repeats (SSRs) markers using whole genome sequencing. We then analysed 11 populations of A. frigida that had been sampled along a large climatic gradient in Mongolia, which were sub-structured according to three levels of grazing intensity.