Late pleistocene and holocene paleoecology and biogeography of high elevation flora and glaciation of western Canada

不列颠哥伦比亚省丰富的植物和多样的生态系统归因于当代景观和气候的多样性。这项研究调查了高海拔植物的生物丰富性部分起源于更新世末期不完整的科迪勒冰盖的可能性。它还研究了物种分布和高海拔生态系统在大约10,000年前从冰川时代到非冰川时代的快速气候变化，特别是变暖期间的特征和变化速度。将通过花粉、大型化石和木炭分析对湖泊和湿地沉积物岩心和地质暴露进行测年和研究，以重建温哥华岛和公元前中北部的环境历史。温哥华岛有地质证据表明，它的一部分逃过了最后一次冰川。公元前中北部高山植物的叶绿体DNA有很强的证据表明，长时间不结冰。将对高山物种进行DNA研究，以补充古生态研究，并将现代植物分布与冰川历史联系起来。这一结果将揭示加拿大西部最后一次冰盖的范围和时间，为高海拔物种对气候变暖的反应提供洞察，或许还可以解释为什么一些卑诗省高山植物物种会出现不同的叶绿体DNA类型。

British Columbia's (BC) rich flora and diverse ecosytems are ascribed to contemporary landscape and climate diversity. This study investigates the possibility that the biotic richness of high-elevation plants originates in part from an incomplete Cordilleran ice sheet at the end of the Pleistocene Epoch. It also examines the character and rates of change in species distributions and high elevation ecosystems during rapid climatic changes, especially warming, from glacial to non-glacial times about 10,000 years ago. Lake and wetland sediment cores and geological exposures will be dated and studied by pollen, macrofossil and charcoal analyses to reconstruct environmental history on Vancouver Island and in north central BC. Vancouver Island has geological evidence that portions of it escaped the last glaciation. North-central BC has strong evidence from the chloroplast DNA of alpine plants for a long ice-free interval. DNA studies will be carried out on alpine species to complement paleoecological studies and link modern plant distributions with glacial history. The results will shed light on the extent and timing of the last ice sheet in western Canada, provide insight into the response of high altitude species to climate warming, and perhaps explain why diverse chloroplast DNA types occur in some BC alpine plant species.