A Molecular Perspective on the Historical Biogeography of the Northern High Latitudes

• Published in: Journal of Mammalogy
• Main Authors: Waltari, Eric, Demboski, John R., Klein, David R., Cook, Joseph A.
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford University Press 2004
• Subjects: Feature Articles; Arctic; Greenland; Arctic hare; Climate change; Lepus arcticus; Seward Peninsula; Alaska; Beringia
• Online Access: http://jmammal.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/short/85/4/591; https://doi.org/10.1644/BER-101

Phylogeographic analyses of arctic organisms provide spatial and temporal frameworks for interpreting the role of climate change on biotic diversity in high-latitude ecosystems. Phylogenetic analyses based on 673 base pairs of the mitochondrial control region from 95 arctic hares ( Lepus arcticus, L. othus, L. timidus ) and 2 other Lepus species identified 6 strongly or moderately supported clades. The 3 arctic hare species are closely related, but phylogenetic discontinuities were found at the eastern and western boundaries of Beringia, the latter not previously identified as a species boundary. The locations of these discontinuities are congruent with previously described genetic breaks in Arctic plants, birds, and small mammals. Similarly, the finding of a Beringian clade corroborates previous studies identifying Beringia as a refugium. A coalescent view of a population on Seward Peninsula, Alaska (eastern Beringia), did not, however, provide a genetic signature of population expansion. In contrast, a Greenland population did show a signal of expansion.