Forests of the Past: A Window to Future Changes
Rémy J. Petit,1,2*
Feng Sheng Hu,3
Christopher W. Dick4,5
The study of past forest change provides a necessary historical context for evaluating the outcome of human-induced climate change and biological invasions. Retrospective analyses based on fossil and genetic data greatly advance our understanding of tree colonization, adaptation, and extinction in response to past climatic change. For instance, these analyses reveal cryptic refugia near or north of continental ice sheets, leading to reevaluation of postglacial tree migration rates. Species extinctions appear to have occurred primarily during periods of high climatic variability. Transoceanic dispersal and colonization in the tropics were widespread at geological time scales, inconsistent with the idea that tropical forests are particularly resistant to biological invasions.
1 INRA, UMR1202 Biodiversity, Genes and Communities, 69 Route d'Arcachon, F-33612 Cestas, France.
2 University of Bordeaux I, UMR1202 Biodiversity, Genes and Communities, 69 Route d'Arcachon, F-33612 Cestas, France.
3 Departments of Plant Biology and Geology, and Program in Ecology, Evolution, and Conservation Biology, University of Illinois, Urbana, IL 61801, USA.
4 Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and Herbarium, University of Michigan, 830 North University Avenue, Ann Arbor, MI 48103, USA.
5 Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Post Office Box 0843-03092, Balboa, Ancón, Republic of Panama.
* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: petit{at}pierroton.inra.fr
