31 European Pond Turtle Emys orbicularis Complex
Emys orbicularis Linnaeus, 1758 is a polytypic species composed of a number of morphologically defined subspecies Fritz 1996 . IIa IIb IIc IId IIf 4IIg Jf IIh IIIa IIIb o IVa n IVb IVc IVd IVe 0 IVf n IVg IVh Va Vb Vc VIa VIb VIc VId VIe VIIa t VIIb VIIIa Fig. 1 Geographical distribution of Emys haplotypes only natural populations . Some rare haplotypes are not shown. Note that only haplotypes of groups I and II occur naturally North of the Alps We sequenced the mitochondrial cytochrome b gene...
41 Endemic Taxa and Autochtonous Evolution in the Carpathian Basin
The level of endemism generally correlates with the geological age of the refugia where relict-like taxa have been evolved and or could survive. The Carpathian Basin belongs to the geologically young areas of Europe. Its relief developed under the influence of the Alpine orogenesis and by retreat of the Paratethys and the Pannonian inland sea. Moreover, the phylogeography of some freshwater invertebrates e.g. Neritidae snails, see Bunje 2007 Feher et al. 2007 is clearly connected with the...
5 Summary and Conclusions
The European fauna has traditionally been subdivided into a holothermic refugial and a holopsychric invasion type. The former type was differentiated according to the secondary subdivision of the Mediterranean refugial area. This view was confirmed and modulated by molecular results. A general conclusion was that temperate species mainly derive from Mediterranean refugial populations that underwent range expansion in the late glacial and early post-glacial periods. The other main group has been...
2 Biology and Ecology of Cave Animals
Cave animals are adapted to the above-mentioned special habitat conditions, which include reduced environmental variation and darkness. Loss of eyes, loss of wings in insects, and reduction of pigments are elements of regressive evolution prolongation of extremities and increased sensory systems are elements of progressive evolution which occur in cave animals. The development of such features associated with cave life is known as troglomorphy Christiansen 2005 . In many cases, these features...
1 What Are Relicts
Dictionaries define a relict as something that has survived, usually as a trace, from the past. In biology, relicts are distinctive populations or species that typically are small in size or severely restricted in geographic range. Biologists distinguish between taxonomic and biogeographic relicts. Taxonomic relicts are a few or sole survivors of a once diverse taxonomic assemblage, whereas biogeographic relicts are descendants of once widespread taxa or populations that now have a narrow...
32 CarpathianBalkanic BoreoMontane Arboreal Refugia
It is known since several decades that the Southern part of the Carpathian Mts. was a refugial area for temperate and mountain forest taxa during the last glacial period Huntley and Birks 1983 . The Eastern and the Southern Carpathians have been repeatedly pointed out as important glacial refugia, from which trees started to expand at the beginning of the Holocene e.g. Huntley and Birks 1983 Bennett et al. 1991 Willis 1994 . In particular, Willis et al. 2000 indicated that temperate refugia in...
13 The Geographical Projection of the Genetic Diversity Data
It is not only the number of the species, but also some characteristics of the genetic diversity that show the highest values in the transitional belt mentioned above. Based on the chloroplast DNA variation in 22 widespread European trees and shrubs, it was pointed out that despite their individualistic migration behaviour, diverse ecological requirements from the Southern temperate to the Southern boreal zone and different modes of seed dispersal, significant species of the woody flora of...
ExtraMediterranean Refugia PostGlacial Vegetation History and Area Dynamics in
Abstract Evidences from fossil records and genetic research suggest that the arboreal refugia were not restricted to Southern Europe and in particular to the Mediterranean peninsulas during the full-glacials. Fossil pollen data and macrofossil remains indicate that several tree species have survived also at the Southern edge of the cold-dry steppe-tundra area in Central and Eastern Europe. Recent results of surveys on the Late Pleistocene Mammalian fauna clearly contradict to the tree-less...
References
Agarwal AA 2001 Phenotypic plasticity in the interactions and evolution of species. Science 294 321-326 Assmann T 1999 The ground beetle fauna of ancient and recent woodlands in the lowlands of North-West Germany Coleoptera, Carabidae . Biodivers Conserv 8 1499-1517 Avise JC 2000 Phylogeography. The history and formation of species. Harvard University Press, Cambridge Avise JC, Hamrick JL eds 1996 Conservation genetics case histories from nature. Chapman amp Hall, New York Beierkuhnlein C 2007...
22 Climate Variability
Climate varies on all time scales longer than its definition limit and on a wide range of spatial scales, from regional to global. The variability of climate can be expressed in terms of two basic modes the forced mode with variations which are the response of the climate system to changes in external forcing, which themselves are not influenced by the climatic variables themselves, and the free mode variations due to internal instabilities and feedbacks leading to non-linear interactions among...
21 The Climate System and Relevant Processes
The usual definition of climate is that it encompasses the slowly varying aspects of the atmosphere-hydrosphere-land surface system. In some sense, climate is the average condition of the weather over several years to tens of years averaging times need to be carefully chosen , as exemplified by the parameters viz., temperature, wind velocity, relative humidity, cloudiness and the amount of precipitation. Modern climate definitions include higher order statistics beyond mean values, such as the...
The Changing Climate Past Present Future
Abstract Over the 4.6 billion years of its existence, the Earth has seen a large variety of climate states. During the evolution of our planet, its climate was characterized by periods of enhanced climate variability or even swings and some more or less stable - almost quiet - periods. Natural climate variability was the rule rather than an exception and the evolution of life on Earth was closely linked to climate and its change. For about 250 years, mankind has interfered stronger with the...
Contributors
Thorsten Assmann Institute of Ecology and Environmental Chemistry, Leuphana University L neburg, Scharnhorststra e 1, D-21335 L neburg, Germany, assmann uni.leuphana.de Bettina Augenstein Biogeographie, Universit t Trier, Am Wissenschaftspark 25-27, D-54296 Trier, Germany, augenstein uni-trier.de John C. Avise University of California, Irvine, CA 92697, USA, javise uci.edu Monica A. Amorin Department of Animal Biology and Ecology, University of Vigo, EUET Forestal, Campus Universitario, E-36006...
2 Conservation of Relict Species and Populations
Why focus special conservation attention on relict as opposed to non-relict taxa One explanation may reside in the connotation for relict that appears from the word trace in the dictionary definition. Typically, little remains of any relict, implying in the current biological context that extant populations of a relict species are few in number or small in size. Thus, populations of a relict taxon might occupy disjunct mountain peaks or perhaps a few isolated lakes, for example. Rarity and...