Population differentiation is a pervasive process in nature. At present, evolutionary studies on plant population differentiation address key questions by undertaking joint ecological and genetic approaches and employing a combination of molecular and experimental means. In this special issue, we gathered a collection of papers dealing with various ecological and genetic aspects of population differentiation in plants. In particular, this special issue encompasses eight research articles and two reviews covering a wide array of worldwide environments, plant functional types, genetic and genomic approaches, and common garden experiments to quantify molecular and/or quantitative trait differentiation in plant populations. Overall, this special issue stresses the validity of traditional evolutionary studies focused on plant populations, whilst emphasizing the integration of classical biological disciplines and state-of-the-art molecular techniques into a unique toolkit for evolutionary plant research.

中文翻译：

---

特刊简介：植物种群分化的生态学和遗传学

种群分化在自然界中是一个普遍的过程。目前，植物种群分化的进化研究通过采取联合生态和遗传方法以及采用分子和实验手段相结合来解决关键问题。在本期特刊中，我们收集了一系列论文，这些论文涉及植物种群分化的各种生态和遗传方面。特别是，本期特刊包括八篇研究文章和两篇评论，涵盖了广泛的全球环境、植物功能类型、遗传和基因组方法，以及用于量化植物种群中分子和/或数量性状分化的常见花园实验。总体而言，本期特刊强调了以植物种群为重点的传统进化研究的有效性，