Refugium (population Biology)

Refugium (population Biology)

In biology a refugium (plural: refugia), sometimes termed simply a refuge, is a location of an isolated or relict population of a once more widespread species. This isolation (allopatry) can be due to climatic changes, geography, or human activities such as deforestation and over-hunting.

Present examples of refuge species are the mountain gorilla, isolated to specific mountains in central Africa, and the Australian Sea Lion, isolated to specific breeding beaches in South Australia due to over hunting. This isolation, in many cases, can be seen as only a temporary state; however, some refugia may be long-standing, thereby having many endemic species, not found elsewhere, which survive as relict populations.

In anthropology, refugia often refers specifically to Last Glacial Maximum refugia, where some ancestral human populations may have been forced back to glacial refugia, similar small isolated pockets in the face of the continental ice sheets during the last ice age. Going from west to east, suggested examples include the Franco-Cantabrian region (in northern Iberia), the Italian, and Balkan peninsulas, Ukrainian LGM refuge, and the Bering land bridge.