Life Sciences Commons^™

Limited Range-Filling Among Endemic Forest Herbs Of Eastern North America And Its Implications For Conservation With Climate Change, Stephanie K. Erlandson, Jesse Bellemare, David A. Moeller

Biological Sciences: Faculty Publications

Biodiversity hotspots host a high diversity of narrowly distributed endemic species, which are increasingly threatened by climate change. In eastern North America, the highest concentration of plant diversity and endemism occurs in the Southern Appalachian Mountains (SAM). It has been hypothesized that this region served as a refugium during Pleistocene glacial cycles and that postglacial migration northward was dispersal limited. We tested this hypothesis using species distribution models for eight forest herb species. We also quantified the extent to which the geography of suitable habitat shifted away from the current range with climate change. We developed species distribution models for …