In the study presented here, we applied chloroplast and nuclear target enrichment to a total of 67 sedaDNA samples, which were isolated from dated sediment cores from eight lakes distributed across Siberia covering the last 50,000 years.. Larix sedaDNA capture of multiple Siberian lake records

Larch forests cover vast areas of Siberia and impact the regional ecosystem as well as global climate feedback loops. Three Larix species form largely monospecific boreal forests ranging from east to west. However, drivers of species distribution are not well understood and even less is known on how species distribution reacted to past climate changes. This study tracks Larix population history in time and space using target enrichment on 67 lake sediment samples from eight lakes across Siberia. We show that Larix sibirica likely migrated to its northern distribution area only in the Holocene, and had a much wider eastern distribution around 33,000 years before present. DNA samples dated to the Last Glacial Maximum, consistently show variations typical for L. gmelinii and L. cajanderi. Our results suggest climate as a strong determinant of species distribution in Larix and provide temporal and spatial data for species projection in a changing climate.