Structure of Needle Highlights Ecological Adaptability and Microevolution of Natural Populations of Cedrus atlantica in Morocco

Abstract

The study of morphological and anatomical characteristics of leaves is important for assessing the geographical variation of species. The ecological adaptability of forty individuals from four populations of Cedrus atlantica were studied, based on analysis of morphological and anatomical traits. The results of the Spearman nonparametric coefficient of correlation showed that the number of stomatal lines (NLS) and the length of the needle (NL) are negatively correlated to altitude and positively to latitude and precipitation sums, while the width of the needle (NW), the thickness of the cuticle (CT), and the number of needles per rosette (NN/R) were negatively related to temperature. In addition, the sum of precipitation is negatively correlated with NW. The first two principal components account for 58.18% of the variation. According to Tukey’s test and Kruskal–Wallis test, all populations had at least three characters separating them at a statistically significant variation. Moreover, the hierarchical classification led us to the individualization of three main groups. All these results show an adaptation of the structure of the needles of C. atlantica from Morocco to the geographical position and the climatic conditions of the populations.