Intraspecific micro-differentiation
Alpine environments are useful for studying small-scale population differentiation. This is because environmental conditions can change rapidly within a local area. For example, micro-topographical differences can give rise to marked variations in snow melting regime. Shimono and Kudo (pp. 21-29) demonstrate that fellfield and snowbed populations of Potentilla matsumurae in the Taisetsu Mountains, Hokkaido, northern Japan, differ markedly in their germination behaviour.
