  The statistical properties of a scalar field advected by the non-intermittent
Navier-Stokes flow arising from a two-dimensional inverse energy cascade are
investigated. The universality properties of the scalar field are directly
probed by comparing the results obtained with two different types of injection
mechanisms. Scaling properties are shown to be universal, even though
anisotropies injected at large scales persist down to the smallest scales and
local isotropy is not fully restored. Scalar statistics is strongly
intermittent and scaling exponents saturate to a constant for sufficiently high
orders. This is observed also for the advection by a velocity field rapidly
changing in time, pointing to the genericity of the phenomenon. The persistence
of anisotropies and the saturation are both statistical signatures of the
ramp-and-cliff structures observed in the scalar field.
