Scandinavian conifer trees in the high arctic were able to withstand the last ice age, researchers from Murdoch University and elsewhere have shown. It was previously believed that Scandinavian forests were entirely the products of species migration from ice-free areas of southern and eastern Europe.
The new research, based on DNA analysis, demonstrates that Scandinavian conifers do not all spring from the same recent ancestor. Although some have migrated from warmer parts of Europe, others survived for tens of thousands of years in ice-free “refuges” in the middle of the arctic.
Read more at Murdoch University