Impact of past climate warming on genomic diversity and demographic history of collared lemmings across the Eurasian Arctic.

ABSTRACT: The Arctic climate was warmer than today at the last interglacial and the Holocene thermal optimum. To reveal the impact of past climate-warming events on the demographic history of an Arctic specialist, we examined both mitochondrial and nuclear genomic variation in the collared lemming (Dicrostonyx torquatus, Pallas), a keystone species in tundra communities, across its entire distribution in northern Eurasia. The ancestral phylogenetic position of the West Beringian group and divergence time estimates support the hypothesis of continental range contraction to a single refugial area located in West Beringia during high-magnitude warming of the last interglacial, followed by westward recolonization of northern Eurasia in the last glacial period. The West Beringian group harbors the

SUBMITTER: Fedorov VB 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7022146 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature