Elevation and local refuges ensure persistence of mountain specific vegetation in the Nigerien Sahara

The role of outcrops in the diversity of Patagonian vegetation: Relicts of glacial palaeofloras?

“…The species assemblages of southern walls of Patagonian outcrops may therefore represent relicts of a paleo-flora, as has been suggested similarly for outcrop floras of other regions of the world (e.g. Danin, 1999;Porembski and Barthlott, 2000;Anthelme et al, 2008;Catling, 2009).…”

Are ferns in arid environments underestimated? Contribution from the Saharan Mountains

“…In the Aïr, the highest peaks reach approximately 2000 m, and the presence of relictual trees such as Olea oleracea subsp. laperrinei (Anthelme et al, 2008b) or Ficus salicifolia (Anthelme et al, 2008a) indicates the existence of a vegetation belt less constrained by aridity. But whether this elevation is sufficient to buffer the Saharan aridity and allow the presence of ferns usually found in less arid regions is questionable.…”

“…Taking into account that vegetation studies on the highest peaks of the Aïr Mountains are very scarce (Poilecot in Giazzi, 1996; however, see Anthelme et al, 2008a) and that in similar dry areas ferns are usually small and either located in shaded habitats under boulders and in rock crevices, or even retracted underground, we hypothesize the number of fern species to be underestimated.…”

“…However, a number of isolated plant communities with a large range of water requirements have been described recently from the highest peaks of the Aïr (Anthelme et al, 2008a), suggesting that other ferns might also be able to colonize these habitats. Their conservation value may be particularly high, especially because isolation from their main range of distribution following climatic vicissitudes (Maley, 1980) may have led to genetic adaptations, as shown for other taxa in this region (Besnard et al, 2007).…”

Differentiation of North African foxes and population genetic dynamics in the desert—insights into the evolutionary history of two sister taxa, Vulpes rueppellii and Vulpes vulpes

“…Its remoteness, harsh climatic conditions and frequent political instability result in considerable knowledge gaps in species ranges, ecological requirements and genetic diversity ). The Sahara is the largest warm desert in the world, encompassing a wide range of topographic and climatic features (Anthelme et al 2008;Le Houérou 1997), and exerts a strong influence on the neighbouring Maghreb and Sahel ecoregions (Brito Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s13127-015-0232-8) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. et al 2014).…”