SPATIAL STRUCTURE OF PHENOTYPIC TRAITS IN SEVEN PROVENANCES OF NELTUMA ALBA (FABACEAE)

Backgrounds: Neltuma alba is one of the most important native woody species in Argentina in the Dry Chaco, part of the Argentine Mesopotamia and the Paraguayan Chaco. It shows great variability due to interspecific hybridization and introgression associated with protogyny and self-incompatibility systems. This species is adapted to arid and semi-arid climates with saline and degraded soils. Environmental heterogeneity and wide distribution may result in local adaptation and autocorrelated spatial patterns in genetic and quantitative variables.Aim: To analyze the spatial structure in provenances of N. alba influenced by isolation by distance in the Gran Chaco Region.M&M: This work studied spatial structure in seven provenances of N. alba from the Dry and Humid Chaco regions, based on fifteen foliar, fruit and germination traits in 68 individuals, together with five environmental variables.Results and Conclusion: univariate statistical analyses showed significant or highly significant differences among provenances. According to Moran's I index phenotypic and geographical distances are significantly autocorrelated for the first distance class (0-0.643 km). Partial Mantel test showed significant correlation for the first two distance classes. The overall analysis showed that 11 of the analyzed traits showed significant spatial autocorrelation. The local spatial analysis indicated that for several traits their hot spots of high similarity between neighboring individuals and cold spots where nearby individuals are highly differentiated.