Phylogeny, population genetic diversity and ecophysiology of the red mangrove (Rhizophora mangle and Rhizophora racemosa) and its hybrids in the Neotropics (GENFISIOL-RHIZ)

Gonzalo Nieto Feliner, Ivania Cerón Souza, Eldredge Bermigham, Benjamín Turner, Ernesto Medina, Nelson Toro Perea.

In the Neotropics, the hub of these ecosystems is the Rhizophora genus (red mangrove) comprising two main species, R. mangle and R. racemosa, and a third, R. harrisonii, which is presumed to be a hybrid of the other two. Prior genetic studies by the research team question this taxonomic attribution, considering that R. harrisonii is not a separate species, but the product of hybridization and introgression between the other two in “hybrid zones” where they coincide but maintain an ecological stratification. To understand how the two species conserve their morphological and genetic identity despite evidence of hybridization, and learn more about the role performed in the mangrove forest by them and their hybrid forms, the team will undertake a multidisciplinary study – genetic, physiological and ecological – whose aims are: (1) to reconstruct the evolutionary history of Rhizophora in the Neotropics and (2) to establish the environmental characteristics that govern the distribution of R. mangle, R. racemosa and their hybrids in the intertidal zone.