Evolution and phylogeography of arctic-alpine plants: Tertiary roots, glacial refugia and directions of migrations

Molecular methods allow to elucidate the history of Arctic and alpine plants since the Tertiary and their response to the climatic changes during the Quaternary ice ages. The overall goal of the project is to track down the evolution of arctic-alpine plants using a comparative molecular approach. Special emphasis is put on the question where Arctic plants evolved and where they survived the ice ages. Another aim is to reveal when Arctic elements immigrated from the Arctic into the Eurasian mountains, where they form a large proportion of the extant flora. It is now evident that the most important region for Arctic plant diversity is Beringia (eastern Siberia and Alaska), which was also an extensive glacial refugium. However, palaeoenvironmental and biogeographical data suggest that glacial refugia for Arctic plants existed outside this area as well, e.g., in northwestern Siberia or south of the Pleistocene ice sheets. From these refugia arctic elements may have immigrated into the European mountains. Using a set of molecular methods like DNA-sequencing and DNA-fingerprinting on selected plant taxa, directions of their migrations and approximate times of their evolution will be revealed. The research team at the National centre of Biosystematics from the University Oslo (Norway) combines molecular, biogeographical and biosystematical expertise. The proposed research will be tightly linked to ongoing research projects testing hypotheses on the evolution of arctic plants from Central Asian and North-American elements. Thus, assessing the connection between Arctic and European mountains will provide an important contribution to our knowledge of the evolution of arctic and alpine plants.