Population genomics Araucaria angustifolia

To understand the past range dynamics of the Araucaria Forest of southern Brazil and infer whether the forest has expanded or contracted over the last 130K years ago, we investigated the spatial patterns of genomic variation in Araucaria angustifolia, its most dominant tree. The main goals of this study were to evaluate how Araucaria angustifolia responded to the Late Quaternary climate fluctuations and to examine whether the impact of early human settlements in southern Brazil left a diagnosable genetic signature on its populations. To answer those questions, we generated ddRAD sequencing data across 37 localities and analyzed it with machine learning methods to evaluate the demographic history of its populations.