Sky islands are high-elevation areas in continental mountain ranges, which are
geographically isolated. We adopted this concept for the mountains in southwest China …

Despite the absence of major Quaternary glaciations in arid Northwest China, significant
climatic oscillations definitely impacted the evolution of the biota in situ. Phylogeography has …

Due to combinations of diverse geography and climate, and complex geo-climate histories
and sea level fluctuations, the Sino-Japanese floristic region has extremely high species …

The time frame and geographical patterns of diversification processes in European
temperate‐montane herbs are still not well understood. We used the sexual species of the …

Exploring species and their functional diversity is of fundamental importance in biology and
ecology. Many earthworm species comprise a wide range of genetic lineages/cryptic …

Background At the end of the Pliocene and the beginning of Pleistocene glaciation and
deglaciation cycles Ginkgo biloba went extinct all over the world, and only few populations …

The distribution of species changes over time, and the current distribution of different
species could result from distinct eco-evolutionary processes. Thus, investigating the …

Abstract Background Refugial populations in Quaternary glaciations are critical to
understanding the evolutionary history and climatic interactions of many extant species …

Fritillaria cirrhosa D. Don is an endangered perennial herb which has important medicinal
properties. Because of its wide distribution and complex morphology, numerous closely …

Abstract The Qinling Mountains of China provide an excellent study area for assessing the
effect of Pleistocene climatic oscillations and paleogeological events on intraspecific …