Molecular data of the Sphagnum cuspidatum complex relative to taxonomy

The use of species as a concept is an important metric for assessing biological diversity and ecosystem function. However, delimiting species based on morphological characters can be difficult, especially in aquatic plants that exhibit high levels of variation and overlap. The Sphagnum cuspidatum complex, which includes plants that dominate peatland hollows close to or at the water table, provides an example of challenges in species delimitation. Microscopic characters that have been used to define taxa and the possibility that these characters may simply be phenoplastic responses to variation in water availability make species delimitation in this group especially difficult. In particular, the use of leaf shape and serration, which have been used to separate species in the complex, have resulted in divergent taxonomic treatments. Using a combination of high-resolution population genomic data (RADseq) and a robust morphological assessment of plants representing the focal species, we pro..., , File cuspidatum_demultiplexed_illumina_reads_20230315.tar.gz: Zipped folder with 135 files of demultiplexed Illumina reads for Sphagnum samples included in the analyses.
File cuspidatum_dataset_all_135_samples.phy: Phylip format alignment of 8367 RADseq loci generated by ipyrad for 135 Sphagnum samples.
File cuspidatum_dataset_all_135_samples.loci: Loci format file of 8367 RADseq loci generated by ipyrad for 135 Sphagnum samples.
File cuspidatum_plastid_loci_52_samples: Fasta format alignment of 5 plastid concatenated loci generated by ipyrad and identified them by mapping to Sphagnum fallax reference genome (52 samples).
File cuspidatum_dataset_ingroup_57_samples.ustr: Structure format file (two lines per samples, considering S. torreyanum and S. mississippiense samples as diploid and the remain species as haploid) with one randomly selected SNP per locus generated by ipyrad for 57 Sphagnum samples.