Genetic Differentiation Between Populations of Erythronium grandiflorum as Contributed by Isolation by Distance Vs Isolation by Phenology

Erythronium grandiflorum, a montane herb, was sampled to address the degree of genetic differentiation allocated to populations by isolation by distance vs. the amount of genetic differentiation produced by different flowering times, or isolation by phenology. Isozyme analysis was used to obtain genetic data from five populations of E. grandiflorum, three comprising the elevational scale which addressed isolation by phenology, and three comprising the spatial scale which explored isolation by distance. Based on the small sample size used in this study, the elevational scale shows a slightly higher degree of genetic differentiation than the spatial scale. Future studies that examine a larger number of elevational and spatial tiers may be able to compare the effects with greater statistical power