During the Late Pleistocene, major parts of North America were periodically covered by ice sheets. However, there are still questions about whether ice‐free refugia were present in the Alexander Archipelago along the Southeast (SE) Alaska coast during the last glacial maximum (LGM). Numerous subfossils have been recovered from caves in SE Alaska, including American black ( Ursus americanus ) and brown ( U. arctos ) bears, whic...

Peatland pools are freshwater bodies that are highly dynamic aquatic ecosystems because of their small size and their development in organic‐rich sediments. However, our ability to understand and predict their contribution to both local and global biogeochemical cycles under rapidly occurring environmental change is limited because the spatiotemporal drivers of their biogeochemical patterns and processes are poorly understood....

Aim Numerous glacial refugia have been hypothesized along North America's North Pacific Coast that may have increased divergence of refugial taxa, leading to elevated endemism and subsequently clustered hybrid zones following deglaciation. The locations and community composition of these ice‐free areas remains controversial, but whole‐genome sequences now enable detailed analysis of the demographic and evolutionary histories o...

Aim We examined data for ermine ( M ustela erminea ) to test two sets of diversification hypotheses concerning the number and location of late P leistocene refugia, the timing and mode of diversification, and the evolutionary influence of insularization. Location Temperate and sub‐ A rctic N orthern H emisphere. Methods We used up to two mitochondrial and four nuclear loci from 237 specimens for statistical phylogeographical a...

Aim Quaternary climate cycles played an important role in promoting diversification across the N orthern H emisphere, although details of the mechanisms driving evolutionary change are still poorly resolved. In a comparative phylogeographical framework, we investigate temporal, spatial and ecological components of evolution within a suite of H olarctic small mammals. We test a hypothesis of simultaneous divergence among multip...

Relatively little genetic variation has been uncovered in surveys across North American wolf populations. Pacific Northwest coastal wolves, in particular, have never been analysed. With an emphasis on coastal Alaska wolf populations, variation at 11 microsatellite loci was assessed. Coastal wolf populations were distinctive from continental wolves and high levels of diversity were found within this isolated and relatively smal...