Quaternary Refugia of North European Trees

Bennett, K. D.; Tzedakis, Polychronis C.; Willis, Katherine J.

doi:10.2307/2845248

Cited by 752 publications

(644 citation statements)

References 45 publications

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“…The southern European Peninsulas have been traditionally seen as cold stage refugia for many plants and animal taxa (among others: Bennet et al, 1991;Hewitt, 2000) but concerning the herpetofauna, the role of Italy appears to be contradictory. An overview should take into consideration that some taxa that are still present in the Balkans (agamids and large vipers) or in Anatolia (monitor lizards and soft-shell turtles) disappeared from the Italian peninsula during the Neogene and others that are still present in Iberia (amphisbaenians), in the Balkans (Pseudopus, Eryx) or both (Mauremys), disappeared during the Pleistocene.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Pleistocene amphisbaenian from Sicily

Delfino¹

2003

Amphib Reptilia

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Abstract. Recent analysis of the fossil herpetofauna recovered from the latest Middle or earliest Late Pleistocene layers of the site called "K 22" (San Vito Lo Capo, TP, Sicily) revealed the presence of a single vertebra that unquestionably belongs to the order Amphisbaenia. Although it is not possible to assign it at family level, the presence of an undetermined amphisbaenian in the Pleistocene of Sicily represents the last European occurrence of this order outside the present range corroborating the idea that the modern Italian herpetofauna is relatively impoverished if compared to the Pleistocene one, and that this loss of biodiversity not only affected the peninsula but its islands also.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Pleistocene amphisbaenian from Sicily

Delfino¹

2003

Amphib Reptilia

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“…In the Mediterranean Basin, as happens with other plant species of boreo-alpine origin (Bennett et al, 1991;Cox and Moore, 1993;GarcõÂ a et al, 1999), this species is restricted to the mountain areas, following the climatic regression after the last Ice Age. As a result of climate change and human disturbance over centuries, yew distribution in the Mediterranean Basin is formed by a reduced number of small isolated patches, populations being located mainly in shady ravines on northern montane slopes (Franco, 1986).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Yew (Taxus baccata L.) regeneration is facilitated by fleshy-fruited shrubs in Mediterranean environments

García

Zamora

Hódar

et al. 2000

Biological Conservation

139

126

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Yew Taxus baccata is catalogued as a species endangered and prone to extinction in the Mediterranean mountains of southern Spain, due to the small size and senescent status of most populations. In this paper, we study the e ects of herbivory and the protective role of woody shrubs in the regeneration ability of the yew in the Sierra Nevada. The estimated density of the yew in the study plot was 287.9 individuals/ha, more than 90% being juveniles (seedlings and saplings), which were mostly located under¯e-shy-fruited shrubs. Saplings su ered serious herbivore damage when unprotected by shrubs. Thus,¯eshy-fruited shrubs proved to be the best habitat for seedling establishment and sapling survival and growth. The abundance of¯eshy-fruited shrubs in our study site provides a yew population characterized by an active regeneration under natural conditions. We suggest that the maintenance of healthy populations of yew in Mediterranean mountains is strongly dependent on the conservation of well-developed¯eshy-fruit understories and their community of avian dispersers. #

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“…Many lacustrine sites provide continuous and often high resolution records of environmental change that are superior in many aspects to rockshelter sediment records in terms of their suitability for paleoclimatic reconstruction (Allen et al, 1999). However, such records also require careful interpretation as many species are over-or underrepresented in pollen records because of differential pollen production, dispersal, and/or preservation and pollen from isolated refugial populations may not always be represented in regional pollen records (see Bennett et al, 1991). It is therefore important to point out that macro-organic remains from rockshelter sites can be usefully compared to the fossil record obtained from lakes and peat bogs (see Hansen, this issue).…”

Section: Discussion: Site Sensitivity Temporal Resolution and Off-simentioning

confidence: 99%