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[email protected] Numbers displayed above are based on latest data collected. For more information visit www.intechopen.com 18 Living on the Edge: Various Modes of Persistence at the Range Margins of Some Far Eastern Species Elena Artyukova, Marina Kozyrenko, Olga Koren, Alla Kholina, Olga Nakonechnaya and Yuri Zhuravlev Institute of Biology and Soil Science, Far East Branch of Russian Academy of Sciences Russia 1. Introduction Present-day patterns of plant distribution have been formed under the influence of various biotic and abiotic factors. Plant distribution reflects the habitat preferences of species and the outcome of their competition as well as the complex evolutionary processes resulting in the specificity of mating systems, the genetic structure of different species and other aspects of species biology. Together, these factors determine the current ranges and distributions of plant species. At the edge of a species' range, the significance of particular interactions with the environment becomes more pronounced. However, our understanding of this class of interactions is limited. There is debate about whether these interactions represent a distinct and ordered set of related phenomena or whether they are unrelated and without order.