New paper: Glaciation history of Scotland and how it matters for animals
Published as free and open access in the Scottish Geographical Journal
How glaciation impacted evolutionary history and contemporary genetic diversity of flora and fauna in the British Isles
Patterns of contemporary genetic diversity and differentiation are often strongly influenced by historical processes. In previously glaciated regions, the patterns of changing ice coverage during the last ice age would have had a major effect on contemporary diversity and differentiation but exploration of the impact of ice coverage remains poorly explored in evolutionary studies. In this paper, we reviewed our understanding of how ice coverage changed in the British Isles during the end of the last Ice Age (ca. 27,000-11,000 years ago). We then demonstrated the impact of these changing ice coverage on the diversity of numerous flora and fauna species both through it influenced the routes and timing of colonisation and through the isolation of populations into different glacial refugia during glacial conditions. We provide a number of case studies demonstrating the varying outcomes of glacial refugia on genetic differentiation, from species where refugia populations colonised different parts of the contemporary distribution to cases demonstrating the possible outcomes upon secondary contact between refugia populations. This review highlights the many ways glacial history has impacted contemporary patterns and demonstrates the need for its exploration in many evolutionary studies.
