#ARCTIC. #SIBERIA. THIS IS TAIMYR. Researchers from the Russian Academy of Sciences Siberian Branch’s Central Siberian Botanical Garden together with scientists from China, France and the United States, are studying the evolution of flora in the Arctic. They believe that plants at high latitudes appeared earlier than previously thought.
Scientists have isolated DNA and traced the evolution of more than 3600 plant species in the Arctic. Most of them were taken for analysis from the herbarium collections of China, France, America and Russia. Experts are sure that the ancestors of some flora representatives appeared about 10 million years ago.
“About this time, plant migration began from the Mediterranean and western North America. The development of local species continued later, about 9 million years ago”, says the Science in Siberia journal.
Prior to this, researchers believed that the tundra formed about 2-3 million years ago. Scientists suggest that the flora in the Arctic appeared due to a sharp decrease in the average annual temperature in the Arctic and a drop in sea level 13 million years ago.
Earlier, the Siberian Federal University found out that the Taimyr wild plants are more useful than the southern ‘brothers’. Experts are investigating the adaptation of arctic plants to cold conditions. Canadian scientists have come to the conclusion that arctic foxes are ecosystem engineers of the tundra: the vegetation around their burrows is richer and denser. Russian researchers found an ancient leech on the Putorana plateau. Rare aboriginal reindeer were spotted in the Russian Arctic National Park.
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Text: Angelica Stepanova, Photo: Nikolay Shchipko
