Anatolia: a long-time plant refuge area documented by pollen records over the last 23 Million years

International audienceNorth and South Anatolia areas are today refuge areas for plants that were previously widespread in theEuropean and Mediterranean regions. Thirteen well-dated Anatolian pollen records spanning the last 23 millionyears allow for a reconstruction of the history of several plants that have disappeared from this region or aresurviving in this refuge area. For example, in this study we show that Cedrus is an ancient element of the Anatolianflora. Tropical elements lived in this area until the early Pliocene. Subtropical elements became extinct in theMiddleto Late Pleistocene, except for Glyptostrobus (Taxodiaceae swamp tree) and Carya (Juglandaceae, awarm-temperatetree), which may have persisted until recently in this area. In addition, a comparison of palaeofloras coming fromdifferent locations ranging from 36–38°N and 40–42°N latitudinal intervals in the northeastern Mediterranean(including Anatolian coastal regions) with those from Europe and North Africa has been done. This shows thatthe North and South Anatolia areas appear to have been separate refuges for thermophilous–hygrophilous plantssince the early Pliocene (ca. 5 million years). Today, Anatolia is a plant refuge area for warm-temperate species,which have almost completely (Zelkova) or completely (Pterocarya, Liquidambar, Parrotia persica) disappearedfrom other European and peri-Mediterranean regions. Taxodiaceae swamp ecosystems (Glyptostrobus) mighthave recently disappeared from the southern Black Sea shoreline. New pollen data from Anatolia also allowed usin calibrating the timing of floristic extinctions at a continental scale and helped us in clarifying the reasons of thedifferent floral extinctions and dynamics (breaking up and shifting) in the refuge areas. Thanks to global warmingthere is a potential for the survival and expansion of thermophilous species (Pterocarya fraxinifolia, Zelkova abelica,Liquidambar orientalis) in this area