Cryptic or mystic? Glacial tree refugia in northern Europe
Here, we examine the evidence for tree refugia in northern Europe during the Late Pleniglacial (LPG) interval of maximum tree-range contraction. Our review highlights the often equivocal nature of genetic data and a tendency to overestimate potential tree distributions due to warm climate-model bias...
| Published in: | Trends in Ecology & Evolution |
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| Main Authors: | , , |
| Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Elsevier
2013
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/10261/178483 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tree.2013.09.001 |
| Summary: | Here, we examine the evidence for tree refugia in northern Europe during the Late Pleniglacial (LPG) interval of maximum tree-range contraction. Our review highlights the often equivocal nature of genetic data and a tendency to overestimate potential tree distributions due to warm climate-model bias, and also reveals a convergence of macrofossil and pollen evidence. What emerges is the absence of temperate trees north of 45-N and a west–east (W–E) asymmetry in boreal tree distribution, with a treeless Western Europe north of 46-N, while restricted boreal populations persisted in Eastern Europe up to 49-N, and higher latitudes east of the Fennoscandian ice-sheet. These results have implications for current thinking on European genetic diversity patterns, species migration capacity, and conservation strategies. Peer reviewed |
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