The limited legacy of post-glacial recolonization in the floristic patterns of the European Alps

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 stand..., , , # Data from: The limited legacy of post-glacial recolonization in the floristic patterns of the European Alps

[https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.w9ghx3g12](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

\==========================

Folder:  GIS

\-------------------

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

\-------------------

\* Community_matrix.csv

   -> The community matrix for the 509 grid cells retained in the study. The first colum...