RESEARCH ARTICLE Genetic Delineation of Local Provenance in Persoonia longifolia : Implications for Seed Sourcing for Ecological Restoration Jessica A. Stingemore 1,2 and Siegfried L. Krauss 1,3 Abstract Restoration of diverse native plant communities typically requires the collection of large amounts of seed. Thus, practitioners often struggle to find adequate supplies near project sites and need to know from how far they can col- lect without compromising restoration success—how far does local provenance extend? We addressed this issue by assessing genetic variation within, and differentiation among, 12 potential seed source populations of Persoonia longifolia, a key component of the jarrah forest of Western Australia. An analysis of molecular variance of 66 poly- morphic amplified fragment length polymorphism markers partitioned 92% of the total genetic variation within pop- ulations and 8% among populations, indicating relatively weak but statistically significant population genetic differ- entiation. Ordination of these genetic data showed marked west/east and north/south gradients. Pairwise population genetic dissimilarity was correlated with both geographic distance and environmental distance derived from five cli- mate variables. However, partial Mantel tests showed that the relationship between genetic and geographic distance was not independent of environmental distance, suggest- ing a non-neutral signature in these markers. Bayesian outlier analysis identified two markers, and spatial anal- ysis method tests identified highly significant associations between these two markers and three environmental vari- ables. Frequency differences at these markers across pop- ulations suggested the possibility of climatically adapted provenances. The global significance value from analyses of similarities for these two markers correlated to a general provenance distance of 47 km, in contrast to a threshold of 60 km for the complete dataset. Guidelines for seed sourc- ing that consider these population genetic data should lead to more effective ecological restoration with this species. Key words: AFLP, ANOSIM, landscape genomics, seed collection zone, spatial analysis method. Introduction Ecological restoration and the science of restoration ecology has developed rapidly over the past few decades to the extent that a cohesive body of theory is emerging that is linked to increasingly sophisticated restoration practices (Harris et al. 2006; Bell & Hobbs 2007). Within this is the recognition that the source of seed for ecological restoration can have signif- icant impacts, both positive and negative, on restoration suc- cess of focal populations and neighboring undisturbed popula- tions (Montalvo et al. 1997; Hufford & Mazer 2003; McKay et al. 2005). For example, potentially negative consequences from the introduction of non-local provenance material include (1) maladaptation, whereby non-local genotypes are selected against relative to local genotypes. This means that the use 1 School of Plant Biology, University of Western Australia, 35 Stirling Hwy Nedlands, Western Australia 6009, Australia 2 Address correspondence to J. A. Stingemore, email Jessica.Stingemore@bgpa. wa.gov.au 3 Kings Park and Botanic Garden, Botanic Gardens and Parks Authority, Fraser Ave, West Perth, Western Australia 6005, Australia  2012 Society for Ecological Restoration International doi: 10.1111/j.1526-100X.2011.00861.x of non-local genotypes may ultimately compromise restora- tion success due to higher mortality and/or reduced vigor (Hufford & Mazer 2003; Bischoff et al. 2010); (2) outbreeding depression, when hybrid offspring between individuals from different provenances have lower fitness than progeny from crosses between individuals from the same provenance (Hufford & Mazer 2003; Goto et al. 2011); (3) genetic swamp- ing (and therefore potential extinction) of a local gene pool by the introduction of non-local genotypes through a fitness or numerical advantage (Potts et al. 2003), with flow-on negative effects for the erosion of plant community diversity (Salton- stall 2002); and (4) homogenizing the natural genetic structure of the species and therefore resulting in the loss of biodiversity as populations become less genetically differentiated (Krauss & He 2006). Seed sourcing for native plant community restoration is, however, a highly complex issue, and there are occasions when non-local provenance seed sourcing is desirable. These include (1) when the restoration site is highly disturbed from its natural state, it may be better to use robust cultivars, or to “mix” rather than “match” genotypes (Lesica & Allendorf 1999); (2) when local provenance populations are small and Restoration Ecology 1