Refugium (population Biology) - Speciation

Speciation

As an example of a locale refugia study, Jürgen Haffer first proposed the concept of refugia to explain the biological diversity of bird populations in the Amazonian river basin. Haffer suggested that climatic change in the late Pleistocene led to reduced reservoirs of habitable forests in which populations become allopatric. Over time, this led to speciation - populations of the same species which found themselves in different refugia evolved differently, creating parapatric sister-species. As the Pleistocene ended, the arid conditions gave way to the present humid rainforest environment, reconnecting the refugia.

Scholars have since expanded the idea of this mode of speciation and used it to explain population patterns in other areas of the world, such as Africa, Eurasia, and North America.However this model of speciation remains highly controversial. Theoretically, current biogeographical patterns can be used to infer past refugia: where several unrelated species follow concurrent range patterns, the area may have been a refugium. Moreover, current distribution of species with narrow ecological requirements tend to be associated with the spatial position of glacial refugia