Data from: Islands in the ice: detecting past vegetation on Greenlandic nunataks using historical records and sedimentary ancient DNA meta-barcoding ...

• Main Authors: Jørgensen, Tina, Kjær, Kurt H, Haile, James, Rasmussen, Morten, Boessenkool, Sanne, Andersen, Kenneth, Coissac, Eric, Taberlet, Pierre, Brochmann, Christian, Orlando, Ludovic, Gilbert, M. Thomas P., Willerslev, Eske
• Format: Dataset
• Language: English
• Published: Dryad 2011
• Subjects: sedimentary plant DNA; meta-barcoding; Magnoliophyta; Nunatak; Holocene; Greenland; greenlandic; Ice Sheet
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.5061/dryad.1dv51; https://datadryad.org/stash/dataset/doi:10.5061/dryad.1dv51

Nunataks are isolated bedrocks protruding through ice sheets. They vary in age, but represent island environments in “oceans” of ice through which organism dispersals and replacements can be studied over time. The J.A.D. Jensen’s Nunataks at the southern Greenland ice sheet are the most isolated nunataks on the northern hemisphere - some 30 km from the nearest biological source. They constitute around 2 km2 of ice-free land that was established in the early Holocene. We have investigated the changes in plant composition at these nunataks using both the results of surveys of the flora over the last 130 years, and through reconstruction of the vegetation from the end of the Holocene Thermal Maximum (5528±75 cal yr BP) using meta-barcoding of plant DNA recovered from the nunatak sediments (sedaDNA). Our results show that several of the plant species detected with sedaDNA are described from earlier vegetation surveys on the nunataks (in 1878, 1967 and 2009). In 1967, a much higher biodiversity was detected than ... : JN1-topAncient DNA sequences extracted from sediment sample 'JN1-top' from J.A.D. Jensen's Nunataks (Greenland). Sequences are amplified with the trnL g and h primers and sequenced on the Roche 454 Sequencing Platform. The results are trimmed for primers and tags, and only sequences found in more than 5 copies per amplicon are included.JN1_lowAncient DNA sequences extracted from sediment sample 'JN1-low' from J.A.D. Jensen's Nunataks (Greenland). Sequences are amplified with the trnL g and h primers and sequenced on the Roche 454 Sequencing Platform. The results are trimmed for primers and tags, and only sequences found in more than 5 copies per amplicon are included.JN2-topAncient DNA sequences extracted from sediment sample 'JN2-top' from J.A.D. Jensen's Nunataks (Greenland). Sequences are amplified with the trnL g and h primers and sequenced on the Roche 454 Sequencing Platform. The results are trimmed for primers and tags, and only sequences found in more than 5 copies per amplicon are ...