Data from: The limited legacy of post-glacial recolonization in the floristic patterns of the European Alps
Data files
Feb 25, 2025 version files 6.71 MB
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README.md
3.13 KB
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Supplementary_data.zip
6.71 MB
Abstract
Past glacial periods were highly disruptive to plant species distributions in mid-latitude mountain belts, such as the European Alps, and drove many species to survive in peripheral or nunatak refugia. Progressive glacial retreat during the late Pleistocene and Holocene is thought to have triggered a mass recolonization event in the European Alps. Here, we asked whether this recolonization event has left a spatial legacy in the floristic patterns of the extant Alpine flora, and if so, how strongly this determines floristic patterns in comparison to present-day landscape and climatic drivers. We built on approximately 6 million data points sourced from the Global Biodiversity Information Facility and herbaria to build plant species ranges within a 10 x 10 km grid system laid across the European Alps, and then calculated species assemblage turnover across the grid. Additionally, we used a recent species-level molecular phylogeny encompassing over 80% of the Alpine flora to calculate standardized phylogenetic diversity, phylogenetic endemism and phylogenetic turnover between grid cells. Using spatial autoregressive and generalised dissimilarity modelling, we showed that all floristic measures vary significantly, albeit weakly, with three key post-glacial variables: climate change velocity, time since deglaciation, and distance from the nearest refugium. Unexpectedly, differences in species’ dispersal ability did not explain these patterns. The post-glacial variables have little explanatory power relative to contemporary climate and landscape drivers. We conclude that postglacial recolonization of the Alps is largely complete for the flora as a whole, and that the spatial structure of the extant flora is primarily driven by the contemporary environmental conditions.
https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.w9ghx3g12
Description of the data and file structure
Methods of data collection/generation: see manuscript for details
Files and variables
File: Legacy_supps.zip
Description: File/Folder Details
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Folder: GIS
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This folder contains shapefiles and rasters of environmental variables generated in this study
* Grid.zip
-> Shapefile of the Alpine grid
* Velocity.tiff
-> Temperature-based climate change velocity in the Alps. Units are 30 arc seconds per 1ky.
* Nunatak_refugia.zip
-> Shapefile of nunatak refugia
* Peripheral_refugia.zip
-> Shapefile of peripheral refugia
Folder: Data
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* Community_matrix.csv
-> The community matrix for the 509 grid cells retained in the study. The first column “Code” refers to the name of the grid cell. 1 = species present, 0 = species absent
* Phylosor_distance_matrix.csv
-> The phylogenetic sorenson’s distance between the 509 grid cells retained in the study. Used as the input for GDMs of phylogenetic turnover. Cells “pg1”, “E0o”, and “ftW” were removed from the analysis as clear outliers.
* Supplementary_data_glacial_legacy.csv
-> Contains the values of floristic and environmental measures within each grid cell.
- Code = identifier of each grid cell, equivalent to those in the grid shapefile
- Elev_mean = mean elevation within the grid cell (m)
- Elev_sd = elevation standard deviation within the grid cell
- Slope_deg = mean slope (degrees)
- Precip_total = mean annual precipitation (kg m-2 year-1)
- Nunatak_distance = distance to the nearest nunatak refugium (km)
- Periph_refugia_distance = distance to the nearest peripheral refugium (km)
- Refugia_distance_all = distance to the closest refugium whether nunatak of peripheral (km)
- Deglac = time since most recent deglaciation (ky)
- Temp_annual = mean annual temperature (degrees C)
- Paleo_temp = mean annual temperature at the LGM 21,000 years ago (degrees C)
- Pet = mean monthly potential evapotranspiration (kg m-2 month-1)
- Velocity_med = median value of climate change velocity (km/ky)
- Bedrock_class = Identity of the most common bedrock in the grid cell, Ca = calcareous, Si = siliceous
- n = total number of occurrences points
- S.obs = observed number of species
- SC = sampling completeness (proportion, 0 = least complete, 1 = most complete)
- Standardised_SR = standardised species richness
- Tamme_mean = mean dispersal ability (log(m)) of all species in the grid cell for which there is dispersal ability data
- n_tamme = number of species with dispersal ability data
- Ses_pd = standardised phylogenetic diversity
- Phylo_endem = phylogenetic endemnism
- coords.X = longitudinal position of the top left corner of the grid cell
- coords.Y = latitudinal position of the top left corner of the grid cell