in the Alps

• Main Authors: R Holderegger, I Stehlik, R J Abbott
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: Arctic; Ice Sheet; Saxifraga oppositifolia
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.518.9100; http://labs.eeb.utoronto.ca/barrett/Ivana/11_S_opp_Mol_Ecol.pdf

A recent circumpolar survey of chloroplast DNA (cpDNA) haplotypes identified Pleis-tocene glacial refugia for the Arctic-Alpine Saxifraga oppositifolia in the Arctic and, poten-tially, at more southern latitudes. However, evidence for glacial refugia within the ice sheet covering northern Europe during the last glacial period was not detected either with cpDNA or in another study of S. oppositifolia that surveyed random amplified poly-morphic DNA (RAPD) variation. If any genotypes survived in such refugia, they must have been swamped by massive postglacial immigration of periglacial genotypes. The present study tested whether it is possible to reconstruct the Pleistocene history of S. oppositifolia in the European Alps using molecular methods. Restriction fragment length polymorphism