Harboring a large number of endemic species, the Alps and the Western Carpathians are considered as major centers of biodiversity. Nonetheless, the general opinion until the turn of the millennium was that both Central European mountain regions did not provide suitable habitat during the Last Glacial Maximum, but were colonized later from southern refuges. However, recent molecular genetic stud...

The present study aimed to investigate phylogeographical patterns present within A. halleri in Central Europe. 1,281 accessions sampled from 52 populations within the investigated area were used in the study of genetic variation based on chloroplast DNA. Over 500 high-quality species occurrence records were used in ecological niche modelling experiments. We evidenced the presence of a clear phy...

The main issues about relation between climate and relief in the Romanian geomorphological literature follow three directions of research: the description of Pleistocene glacial and Pleistocene-Holocene periglacial landforms in the Carpathians; the direct analysis of climate?s role in landform development; the integration of separate works and findings in a synthetic morphodynamic system applic...

The Pilosella alpicola group comprises four morphologically distinct and geographically vicariant alpine taxa. We performed a thorough herbarium revision and literature survey to infer their distributional pattern(s). Pilosella alpicola s.s. occurs in the Alps in two disjunct areas: the Swiss Valais Alps and the Italian Dolomites. Historical records come also from the Austrian Alps (Gurktaler A...

The rare boreo-alpine, oligotraphenic diatom Planothidium distinctum (= Achnanthes distincta) was first described from the western Alps in 1954. Achnanthes hirta, a species described in 1970 from the Pyrenees, is regarded as a heterotypic synonym of Planothidium distinctum but almost all morphological details of P. distinctum are known from the type material of Achnanthes hirta. On the basis of...

The Arabidopsis arenosa complex is closely related to the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana. Species and subspecies in the complex are mainly biennial, predominantly outcrossing, herbaceous, and with a distribution range covering most parts of latitudes and the eastern reaches of Europe. In this study we present the first comprehensive evolutionary history of the A. arenosa species complex, cove...

In the past only very few works dealt with fossil decapod crustaceans from Slovakia. The systematic research of this group has never been fully conducted there. This contribution provides a short review of all known Mesozoic and Cenozoic fossil decapod occurrences. So far, most of the taxa were described from the Eocene and Miocene strata.

the main issues about relation between climate and relief in the romanian geomorphological literature follow three directions of research: the description of pleistocene glacial and pleistocene-holocene periglacial landforms in the carpathians; the direct analysis of climate?s role in landform development; the integration of separate works and findings in a synthetic morphodynamic system applic...

Genetic variation within species is commonly structured in a hierarchical manner which may result from superimposition of processes acting at different spatial and temporal scales. In organisms of limited dispersal ability, signatures of past subdivision are detectable for a long time. Studies of contemporary genetic structure in such taxa inform about the history of isolation, range changes an...