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Habitat-scale ecological data for the Adiantum pedatum complex in northeastern North America

Southgate, Morgan1

Published Oct 15, 2025 on Dryad. https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.1c59zw473

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Abstract

Species arising from hybridization are shaped by a different set of evolutionary mechanisms than species arising from divergence, providing a valuable opportunity to broaden our understanding of ecological niche evolution and conservatism. We focused on the ecology of hybridization within the North American members of the Adiantum pedatum complex (Pteridaceae), a clade of maidenhair ferns; in the northeast portion of its range, the clade includes the diploid species A. pedatum and A. aleuticum as well as their allotetraploid hybrid A. viridimontanum. Adiantum pedatum commonly occurs in rich woods across eastern North America, whereas A. viridimontanum and A. aleuticum (only in the eastern North American portion of its range) are restricted in distribution to the northern portion of a narrow belt of ultramafic and serpentinite bedrock scattered along the Appalachian mountains. As the fine-scale component of a broader effort to characterize the realized ecological niche of A. viridimontanum relative to its progenitors across spatial scales, we established 105 survey plots at 41 sites across northeastern North America at sites of occurrence for one or more members of the Adiantum pedatum complex. At each survey plot, we collected a set of ecological attributes including percent canopy cover, topography, and soil layer depth. A soil sample collected from each plot was submitted to the University of Vermont Agricultural and Experimental Testing Laboratory for detailed analysis of chemical composition. These data were analyzed using Principal Component Analysis to characterize the realized niche of each species in environmental space. We found that the ecological niche of A. viridimontanum is intermediate between that of its progenitors. However, this pattern is spatially variable; in the core section of range, where all three species co-occur, the niche of the allotetraploid also exhibits a subtle pattern of expansion, corresponding in geographic space to novel habitats that are unoccupied by either progenitor. Our results highlight the importance of looking across spatial scales when studying complex ecological patterns. Re-use potentials for this dataset include 1) edaphic contrasts between serpentine and rich woods habitats, and 2) analysis of fine-scale differences in soil chemistry within each habitat type.