Fitness and diversity in populations of four common and four rare congeneric alpine plant species

The first chapter investigates the relationship between population size and multiple fitness parameters and whether there is a difference between common and rare species in respech to these relationships.

The second chapter assesses the morphological diversity within small and large populations of the four rare and the four common study species and adresses the question whether rare species have a lower level of morphological diversity and whether there is a positive relationship between population size and morphological diversity.

The third chapter looks at the environmental heterogeneity within populations of the study species and investigates if rare species have narrower realised niche than common species in alpine habitats.