“…Being climatically and topographically heterogeneous, mountain ecosystems are characterised by a high degree of plant species diversity ( López-Pujol et al 2011 , Hassan et al 2005 ). They are often considered to have been potential refugia or buffering zones that either prevented extinction or promoted speciation during the Quaternary glacial-interglacial shifts because of their high spatiotemporal climatic stability ( Sandanov et al 2020 , Harrison and Noss 2017 , Feng et al 2016 , Sandel et al 2011 ). During the Pleistocene glacial periods, ice sheets expanded greatly throughout northern Asia, mountainous regions contributed to the preservation of a number of alpine species ( Harrison and Noss 2017 , Volkova and Baranova 1980 ).…”