[PCA] NEWS: Islands in the sky: How isolated are mountain top plant populations?

[Olivia Kwong]

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2011-01/ajob-iit012111.php

Islands in the sky: How isolated are mountain top plant populations?
Pollinators interact with their landscapes to affect the genetic structure 
of 3 Penstemon species in the Great Basin

Do mountain tops act as sky islands for species that live at high 
elevations? Are plant populations on these mountain tops isolated from one 
another because the valleys between them act as barriers, or can 
pollinators act as bridges allowing genes to flow among distant 
populations?

Dr. Andrea Kramer and colleagues from the Chicago Botanic Garden and the 
University of Illinois at Chicago were interested in pursuing these 
questions, particularly for a genus of plants, Penstemon (Plantaginaceae), 
endemic to the Great Basin region of the Western United States. They 
published their findings in the January issue of the American Journal of 
Botany (http://www.amjbot.org/cgi/content/full/98/1/109).

See the link above for the full public release text.