Changes in the vegetation cover of East-Central Europe in the Holocene based on molecular diversity and distribution pattern of forest tree species

Abstract

The climate warming of the early Holocene period has shaped the distribution area of tree species forcing cold tolerant species to withdraw and promoting warm tolerant, broadleaf species to colonize new habitats towards the northern Europe. The Balkan Peninsula has served as an important refugia for many tree species during the glacial cycles of the Pleistocene, from where they were able to colonize Central Europe in the postglacial period. However, latest studies based on palynological studies as well as genetic diversity evaluations and DNA fingerprinting provided evidences of some population that survived the glacial cycles in situ, mainly at low elevations of the Carpathians and, in some parts of the Carpathian basin.