Glacial-relict symptoms in the Western Carpathian flora

• Glacial relicts have been regionally morecommon in glacial than in recent times. A rigorousassessment of which species are indeed glacial relictsis extremely difficult because direct evidence is untraceableor equivocal for many species.We aimed to identifyspecies of theWestern Carpathian flora (vascular plants,bryophytes and terrestrial lichens) that display apparentbiogeographical and ecological symptoms, suggesting awider regional or supra-regional distribution during glacialtimes, or at least before the middle-Holoceneclimate optimum. We worked with the premise thatexemplary relict species should tolerate continentaland/or arctic climates, should have large distributionranges with disjunctions, being regionally rare and ecologicallyconservative nowadays, should be associatedwith habitats that occurred during glacial times (tundra,steppe, peatland, open coniferous forest) and shoulddisplay a restriction of ecological niches in the studyregion. The assessed species were primarily those withboreo-continental or artcic-alpine distribution.We demonstrateda conspicuous gradient of glacial-relict symptoms,with Carex vaginata, Betula nana, Trichophorumpumilum, Nephroma arcticum, Saxifraga hirculus andCladonia stellaris topping the ranking. Based on thearbitrary ranking, 289 taxa can be considered highprobabilityrelicts. For only a minority of them, thereare any phylogeographical and/or palaeoecological dataavailable from the study area. Biogeographical and ecologicalsymptoms of 144 taxa suggest that they retreatedrapidly after the Last Glacial Maximum whereas otherspecies probably retreated later. The first principal componentof biogeographical symptoms sorted speciesfrom circumpolar arctic-alpine species of acidicpeatlands and wet tundra to strongly continental speciesof steppe, steppe-tundra and mineral-rich fens. Thisdifferentiation may mirror the altitudinal zonation ofglacial vegetation in the Western Carpathians.

Keyword

Bryophytes . Biogeography. Central Europe . Habitat preferences . Glacial relict . Macroscopic terrestrial lichens .Vascular plants

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ref (subject category)

art (subject category)