**Acknowledgements**

Support to the author from the University of Denver through the Faculty Startup Funds is greatly appreciated. The author would like to thank Dr. A-Xing Zhu in the Department of Geography at the University of Wisconsin-Madison for his invaluable inputs on designing methods, and Dr. Wen Xiao and Dr. Zhi-Pang Huang in the Institute of Eastern-Himalaya Biodiversity Research at Dali University and officials in the Yunling Nature Reserve administration for their generous support for field work of the reported *R. bieti* case study.
