The Carpathians belong to the main elements of the European Alpine System and have an important biogeographical location between the Balkan ranges in the South, the Alps in the West and the ...Scandinavian range in the North. However, until recently this area was rarely included in detailed phylogeographical studies that could bring insights into its biogeographical history, links with other mountain ranges and contemporary genetic structure of populations. Here, available phylogeographical studies on high-mountain plants that include data concerning the Carpathians are reviewed in order to (1) discuss regional phylogeographical structure and divergence of the Carpathian populations from those in other European mountain ranges, and (2) outline further perspectives of the Carpathian phylogeography. Analysis of available studies revealed the complexity of the biogeographical history of high-mountain plants. The studies show a deep phylogeographical structure in the Carpathians, mostly concurring with classical biogeographical boundaries, and suggesting a long-term isolation and restricted gene flow between the main Carpathian regions. For some species, though, recent dispersal events among isolated mountain ranges were detected. Such contrasting patterns were found at a larger geographical scale as well (e.g., between the Carpathians and the Alps).Several examples suggest the importance of the Carpathians in migration of arctic-alpine plants from the East and towards the North. In most reviewed studies, however, the Carpathians are only marginally represented and detailed intraspecific studies based on dense population coverage in all disjunct areas of species' ranges are clearly needed to obtain reliable information and confirm the preliminary phylogeographical patterns emerging from the overview presented here.
Temperate mountain ranges such as the European Alps have been strongly affected by the Pleistocene glaciations. Glacial advances forced biota into refugia, which were situated either at the periphery ...of mountain ranges or in their interior. Whereas in the Alps peripheral refugia have been repeatedly and congruently identified, support for the latter scenario, termed “nunatak hypothesis,” is still limited and no general pattern is recognizable yet. Here, we test the hypothesis of nunatak survival for species growing in the high alpine to subnival zones on siliceous substrate using the cushion plant Androsace alpina (Primulaceae), endemic to the European Alps, as our model species. To this end, we analyzed AFLP and plastid DNA sequence data obtained from a dense and range‐wide sampling. Both AFLPs and plastid sequence data identified the southwestern‐most population as the most divergent one. AFLP data did not allow for discrimination of interior and peripheral populations, but rather identified two to three longitudinally separated major gene pools. In contrast, in the eastern half of the Alps several plastid haplotypes of regional or local distribution in interior ranges—the Alpine periphery mostly harbored a widespread haplotype—were indicative for the presence of interior refugia. Together with evidence from other Alpine plant species, this study shows that in the eastern Alps silicicolous species of open habitats in the alpine and subnival zone survived, also or exclusively so, in interior refugia. As the corresponding genetic structure may be lost in mostly nuclear‐derived, rapidly homogenizing marker systems such as AFLPs or RAD sequencing tags, markers not prone to homogenization, as is the case for plastid sequences (Sanger‐sequenced or extracted from an NGS data set) will continue to be important for detecting older, biogeographically relevant patterns.
Temperate mountain ranges such as the European Alps have been strongly affected by the Pleistocene glaciations. Glacial advances forced biota into refugia, which were situated either at the periphery of mountain ranges or in their interior. Using a prominent plant species of the alpine and subnival zone (Androsace alpina, Primulaceae), we show that rapidly homogenizing markers (here AFLPs) fail to identify interior refugia, probably as a consequence of genetic swamping, whereas DNA sequences from the plastid genome recover signal for both peripheral and interior refugia.
Field revision of current distribution of mountain hawkweeds (Hieracium s. str.) in the Hrubý Jeseník Mts was undertaken. Hieracium atratum, H. chlorocephalum, H. engleri, H. grabowskianum and H. ...plumbeum, whose last occurrence was documented many decades or even a century ago, were rediscovered. H. plumbeum was even found in new localities. The occurrence of H. alpinum, H. bifidum, H. chrysostyloides, H. inuloides, H. nigritum, H. prenanthoides, H. silesiacum, H. stygium and H. villosum was ascertained at many of their historical localities and a few new localities were found too. A neophyte species H. mixtum was discovered. Hieracium moravicum was not found. Accurate locality description and population size are provided for each finding. Herbarium revision and excerption of crucial literature were performed to provide historical distribution. Distributional changes as well as threatening and beneficial factors influencing Hieracium species in the Hrubý Jeseník Mts are discussed.
Understanding the evolutionary history and biogeography of the New Zealand alpine flora has been impeded by the lack of an integrated model of geomorphology and climate events during the Late ...Miocene, Pliocene and Pleistocene. A new geobiological model is presented that integrates rock uplift age, rate of uplift and the resulting summit elevations in the Southern Alps (South Island) during the last 8.0 million years with a climate template using the natural gamma radiation pattern from the eastern South Island Ocean Drilling Program Site 1119 that covers the past 3.9 million years. This model specifically defines the average treeline in relation to mountain height, allowing predictions as to the timing of the formation of the alpine zone and other open habitats. This model predicts open habitats such as rock bluffs, tussock grasslands and riverbeds would have been available from about 4.0–3.0 Ma, coinciding with the initiation of summit uplift and a cooling climate providing an opportunity for the evolution of generalist alpine and open-habitat herbs and shrubs. Alpine habitats began to form at about 1.9 Ma and were a permanent feature of the Southern Alps from about 0.95 Ma. Specialist alpine plants confined to alpine habitats can have evolved only within this period once the alpine zone was persistent and widespread. Bog habitats are likely to date from the Late Miocene (c. 6.0 Ma), and the specialist bog species would have evolved from this time. Molecular-clock dates for DNA sequences from species of specialist alpine habitats, generalist open habitats, and bog habitats are consistent with predictions made on the basis of the model.
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