Cambios en las características morfológicas y genéticas de Croton sp. en un gradiente altitudinal en matorral seco.

Abstract

The species distribution along altitudinal relates to certain environmental changes, which in turn leads to modulate plant morphology and over time they have concrete variants genetic level. Four altitude along a gradient from 1400 to 1800 m above sea level were selected. At each level the morfuncionales traits were measured and genetic characterization of 40 randomly sampled individuals was obtained. CMS (dry matter), height, cover, leaf area and SLA (specific leaf area): five functional traits were measured. The genetic characterization was performed using the molecular technique (AFLP polymorphism amplified fragment length). The linear regression analysis revealed that the ends of the gradient (1400-1800 m a.s.l) and intermediate elevations (1550-1650 m a.s.l) are sharing morphological characteristics. At the genetic level it can be observed that there were two well defined at the ends of the gradient populations, whereas at intermediate elevations individuals of both populations share genes.