Data from: The extreme disjunction between Beringia and Europe in Ranunculus glacialis s. l. (Ranunculaceae) does not coincide with the deepest genetic split – a story of the importance of temperate mountain ranges in arctic-alpine phylogeography

The arctic–alpine Ranunculus glacialis s. l. is distributed in high-mountain ranges of temperate Europe and in the North, where it displays an extreme disjunction between the North Atlantic Arctic and Beringia. Based on comprehensive sampling and employing plastid and nuclear marker systems, we (i) test whether the European/Beringian disjunction correlates with the main evolutionary diversification, (ii) reconstruct the phylogeographic history in the Arctic and in temperate mountains and (iii) assess the susceptibility of arctic and mountain populations to climate change. Both data sets revealed several well-defined lineages, mostly with a coherent geographic distribution. The deepest evolutionary split did not coincide with the European/Beringian disjunction but occurred within the Alps. The Beringian lineage and North Atlantic Arctic populations, which reached their current distribution via rapid postglacial colonization, show connections to two divergent pools of Central European populations. Thus, immigration into the Arctic probably occurred at least twice. The presence of a rare cpDNA lineage related to Beringia in the Carpathians supports the role of these mountains as a stepping stone between temperate Europe and the non-European Arctic, and as an important area of high-mountain biodiversity. The temperate and arctic ranges presented contrasting phylogeographic histories: a largely static distribution in the former and rapid latitudinal spread in the latter. The persistence of ancient lineages with a strictly regional distribution suggests that the ability of R. glacialis to survive repeated climatic changes within southern mountain ranges is greater than what recently was predicted for alpine plants from climatic envelope modelling.

广义冰川毛茛（Ranunculus glacialis s. l.）为北极-高山类群，分布于温带欧洲的高海拔山地及北部高纬区域，在北大西洋北极区与白令陆桥之间呈现极端的分布间断现象。本研究通过全面采样并运用质体（plastid）与核（nuclear）标记系统，开展三项研究：(i) 检验欧洲/白令陆桥的分布间断是否与主要演化分化相关联；(ii) 重建北极区域与温带山地的系统地理历史；(iii) 评估北极及山地种群对气候变化的敏感性。两组数据集均揭示了多个界定清晰的演化支系，其分布大多具有明确的地理一致性。最深的演化分化并未对应欧洲/白令陆桥的分布间断，而是发生在阿尔卑斯山脉内部。白令陆桥演化支系与北大西洋北极种群通过冰期后快速拓殖形成当前分布范围，它们与中欧地区的两个分化遗传集群存在遗传联系。由此推测，北极区域的种群迁入事件至少发生过两次。喀尔巴阡山脉中存在一类与白令陆桥类群相关的稀有叶绿体DNA（cpDNA）演化支系，这一发现证实了该山脉作为温带欧洲与非欧洲北极区域之间的踏脚石，以及作为重要高山生物多样性热点区域的功能。温带与北极分布区呈现出截然不同的系统地理历史：前者分布格局基本保持稳定，后者则经历了快速的纬度扩张。具有严格区域分布的古老演化支系的存续，表明冰川毛茛（Ranunculus glacialis）在南部山地中历经多次气候变化仍得以存活的能力，要强于近期通过气候生态位建模预测的高山植物存活能力。