Publications by authors named "B Frajman"
Article Synopsis
- The Eurasian steppes are a vast and endangered ecosystem that has changed significantly between cold and warm periods, impacting the distribution of various species.
- Researchers studied a specific group of plants, the Astragalus sect. Caprini, from northwestern Africa and Europe to understand their evolutionary history using genetic and morphological data.
- Their findings suggest that these plants originated in the Irano-Turanian region and diversified mainly after the Mid-Pleistocene Transition, indicating that southern European mountains played a crucial role as refuges for species during climate changes.
Influence of polyploidy on morphology and distribution of the Cypress Spurge (Euphorbia cyparissias, Euphorbiaceae).
Plant Biol (Stuttg)
October 2024
Polyploidy can cause differences in phenotypic and physiological traits among different cytotypes of the same species. Polyploids may have larger organs or occupy different ecological niches than their diploid counterparts, therefore they are hypothesized to have larger distributions or prosper in stressful environments, such as higher elevations. The Cypress spurge (Euphorbia cyparissias L.
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- - Deciduous forests in Europe were primarily found in small refuges during the cold Pleistocene periods, especially in southern and central regions, with significant refugia in the northwestern Balkan Peninsula.
- - The study focused on the understorey species Euphorbia carniolica to understand historical forest dynamics, analyzing genetic and morphometric data across its entire range, revealing two main genetic groups linked to different refugia.
- - Findings indicated that genetic separation between these groups began in the early Pleistocene, suggesting a broader historical distribution, and emphasized the late Pliocene origin of E. carniolica before the onset of colder periods in Eurasia.
High levels of phenotypic plasticity are thought to be inherently costly in stable or extreme environments, but enhanced plasticity may evolve as a response to new environments and foster novel phenotypes. Heliosperma pusillum forms glabrous alpine and pubescent montane ecotypes that diverged recurrently and polytopically (parallel evolution) and can serve as evolutionary replicates. The specific alpine and montane localities are characterized by distinct temperature conditions, available moisture, and light.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe Mediterranean Basin is renowned for its extremely rich biota and is considered as one of the 25 Global Biodiversity Hotspots, but its diversity is not homogeneously distributed. Outstanding in the number of (endemic) species are the Ligurian Alps (Italy). At the foot of the Ligurian Alps, little above the Mediterranean Sea, a disjunct occurrence of Italian endemic Euphorbia barrelieri was reported.
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