Abstract
The identification of climatic relicts is seldom straightforward. These species are threatened owing to current climatic trends, which underlines the importance of carrying out ecological and biogeographic investigations of them. Here we introduce a novel approach to improve the identification of climatic relicts. We are focusing on thermophilic relict plants of the Pannonian biogeographic region from the Holocene Thermal Maximum (HTM). We argue that a minimal mean annual temperature difference (MATD) of the HTM compared to the recent climate allowed a continuous northward expansion for the taxa investigated. We measured latitudinal distances between the recent occurrences of relicts and those of the main distribution found further south. Regarding estimates for MATD (1.0–2.5 °C), we only consider species with a distribution which has a 150–350 km North-South gap, since a latitudinally directed distance can be translated into temperature, showing a poleward cooling trend. Of the 15 selected species, 12 were recorded with values of 1.0–1.7 °C MATD, and three with values of 1.8–2.5 °C, some of which are presumably interglacial species. Woody species are over-represented among them (four species), using the Hungarian flora as a reference. The proposed method allows the prediction of potential climate-related changes in the future distribution of species, constrained by the topographic features of their habitats.
Highlights
Climatic relicts [1] are at risk, as a result of current climatic trends; some of their populations may disappear, while some may expand their ranges, underscoring the importance of ecological and biogeographical investigations of these taxa
We considered south-north orientated disjunctions to be the focus of our research, because it is widely accepted that the majority of the holothermic or thermal relicts of Europe derive mainly from
We investigate distances between isolated andmicrorefugial recent continuous distributions, fingerprintshorizontal on the vegetation patterns as shown by occurrences distal or remote occurrences emerging from the retreat of the distances
Summary
Climatic relicts [1] are at risk, as a result of current climatic trends; some of their populations may disappear, while some may expand their ranges, underscoring the importance of ecological and biogeographical investigations of these taxa. Relicts can be either certain populations or all populations of species that are restricted in geographic range. Climatic relicts are typical biogeographic (and not taxonomic) relicts, which are descendants of once widespread taxa (or populations) that have a narrow geographic distribution in refugia as a result of unfavourable climatic conditions acting on a significant part of their distribution. The restriction holds true for all living populations. We will consider climatic relict populations in this paper
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