Did plants survive the ice age?

Based on such fossils a particular ice age plant community was reconstructed that is often referred as steppe, arctic-steppe, steppe-tundra, herb-tundra or mammoth steppe. Today the term steppe is applied to grassland or shrubland with a relative dry and temperate climate, meanwhile tundra applies to an ... read more

The particular plant community of the mammoth steppe was an adaption to the particular combination of environmental factors during the ice age. Little is known about adaptions of the single plants to this environment. read more

The term “ice-age” would be a misnomer because there were several phases of glaciation and inter-glaciation (phases of warming ). Even in the phase of glaciation the entire earth was never covered in ice . It is believed that during the ice ages the polar ice caps would expand and the ice lines would move towards the Equator . read more

INSTEAD of retreating south, it seems some Arctic plants weathered the last ice age in ice-free refuges north of the glaciers. Although ice covered most of the Arctic 18 000 years ago, recent studies show that glaciers never covered eastern Siberia, Alaska and the Yukon Territory. read more