refugium

noun

re·​fu·​gi·​um ri-ˈfyü-jē-əm 

plural refugia ri-ˈfyü-jē-ə 

: an area of relatively unaltered climate that is inhabited by plants and animals during a period of continental climatic change (such as a glaciation) and remains as a center of relict forms from which a new dispersion and speciation may take place after climatic readjustment

Examples of refugium in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Preserved pollen grains and other spores told them about the diversity of plant life in the refugium, something like an oasis where there is food and water available, and environmental conditions are moderate enough to keep organisms surviving through natural disasters and other adverse conditions. —Elizabeth Rayne, Ars Technica, 18 Mar. 2025

The spot may have served as a refugium–or life oasis–for terrestrial plants during the end-Permian mass extinction, when 80 to 90 percent of life on Earth was wiped out about 252 million years ago. —Laura Baisas, Popular Science, 12 Mar. 2025

The findings in this paper are broadly consistent with the idea that Spain was a refugium, and so one of the sources of the population of Northern Europe. —Razib Khan, Discover Magazine, 27 May 2010

Word History

Etymology

New Latin, from Latin, refuge

First Known Use

1943, in the meaning defined above