Growing evidence for the existence of glacial refugia of European beech (Fagus sylvatica L.) in the south-eastern Alps and north-western Dinaric Alps

Background and Purpose: It is widely accepted that south-European peninsulas were major refugial areas from where European beech, Fagus sylvatica L., spread to the rest of Europe in the Holocene. The aim of this paper is to review and evaluate all the available data and present different types of evidence, some of them new or overlooked until now, to support the hypothesis on the existence of glacial refugia of European beech further to the north, in the south-eastern Alps and north-western Dinaric Alps in the Pleistocene, and on rapid development of these populations in the Holocene. Material and Methods: Numerous published pollen diagrams and palynological research as well as reports of macroscopic plant remains, mainly charcoal from Paleolithic sites, were analyzed to examine the presence of European beech in the late Pleistocene and Holocene. Data on genetic variation of beech populations from central and southeastern Europe were analyzed to investigate their genetic structure and differentiation. Additionally, the distribution of several taxonomically rather isolated herbaceous species, characteristic for mesophilous beech communities from the studied area,