Aim Previous research on how climatic niches vary across species ranges has focused on a limited number of species, mostly invasive, and has not, to date, been very conclusive. Here we assess the degree of niche conservatism between distant populations of native alpine plant species that have been separated for thousands of years. Location European A lps and F ennoscandia. Methods Of the studied pool of 888 terrestrial vascula...

Grasses using the C 4 photosynthetic pathway dominate frequently burned savannas, where the pathway is hypothesized to be adaptive. However, independent C 4 lineages also sort among different fire environments. Adaptations to fire may thus depend on evolutionary history, which could be as important as the possession of the C 4 photosynthetic pathway for life in these environments. Here, using a comparative pot experiment and c...