The coalescent tests rejected both the hypothesis that all current populations originated from a single refugium at a low elevation during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) and the hypothesis that the two lineages diverged during the LGM. The tests instead supported the hypothesis that there were four refugia during the LGM, and that the four clades diverged prior to the late Pleistocene. Moreover, the regional clades subsequently persisted at high elevations, rather than migrating to the low-elevation plateau edge during subsequent glacial ages.
This research provides important information on the relationships between geographical as well as climatic events and the evolution of local species in the QTP at a large time scale. It is now published in the latest issue in the famous Journal of Biogeography.
(Studied by Dr. Su Jianping, Professor, Research Center for Plateau Ecology, NWIPB,CAS)