The importance of considering the evolutionary history of polyploids when assessing climatic niche evolution

Although whole‐genome duplication (WGD) is an important speciation force, we still lack a consensus on the role of niche differentiation in polyploid evolution. In addition, the role of genome doubling per se vs. later divergence on polyploid niche evolution remains obscure. One reason for this might be that the intraspecific genetic structure of polyploid complexes and interploidy gene flow is often neglected in ecological studies. Here, we aim to investigate to which extent these evolutionary processes impact our inference on niche differentiation of autopolyploids.