Delayed postglacial colonization of in Iceland and the circum North Atlantic.

As the Arctic continues to warm, woody shrubs are expected to expand northward. This process, known as 'shrubification,' has important implications for regional biodiversity, food web structure, and high-latitude temperature amplification. While the future rate of shrubification remains poorly constrained, past records of plant immigration to newly deglaciated landscapes in the Arctic may serve as useful analogs.

Microscopical palynology: Birch woodland expansion and species hybridisation coincide with periods of climate warming during the Holocene epoch in Iceland.

Introgressive hybridisation between arctic dwarf birch (Betula nana) and European downy birch (B. pubescens) is relatively common in natural woodlands in Iceland. As dwarf birch is a diploid species and downy tree birch a tetraploid species, their hybrids are triploid.

Evolutionary diversification of satellite DNA sequences from Leymus (Poaceae: Triticeae).

The genus Leymus (lymegrass) comprises about 30 polyploid, perennial, temperate grass species in the tribe Triticeae (family Poaceae). Previous studies indicated a large diversity in the Leymus genome, and therefore, the aim of this study was to isolate new repetitive DNA sequences that can be used for differentiating Leymus species and elucidating their genomic relationships. A C0t-1 DNA plasmid library was generated from genomic DNA of American tetraploid species Leymus triticoides.

Morphological variation among Betula nana (diploid), B. pubescens (tetraploid) and their triploid hybrids in Iceland.

Background And Aims: Introgressive hybridization between two co-existing Betula species in Iceland, diploid dwarf birch B. nana and tetraploid downy birch B. pubescens, has been well documented.

Identifying the genome of wood barley Hordelymus europaeus (Poaceae: Triticeae).

Wood barley, Hordelymus europaeus, was compared with other Triticeae species by Southern and fluorescence in situ hybridisation using total genomic DNA and repetitive sequences as probes. On Southern blots, the total genomic probe from H. europaeus hybridised strongly to DNA of its own species and to Leymus and Psathyrostachys, indicating the presence of Ns genome in H.