Data from: Tracking climate change in a dispersal-limited species: reduced spatial and genetic connectivity in a montane salamander

Tropical montane taxa are often locally adapted to very specific climatic
conditions, contributing to their lower dispersal potential across complex
landscapes. Climate and landscape features in montane regions affect
population genetic structure in predictable ways, yet few empirical
studies quantify the effects of both factors in shaping genetic structure
of montane-adapted taxa. Here, we considered temporal and spatial
variability in climate to explain contemporary genetic differentiation
between populations of the montane salamander, Pseudoeurycea leprosa.
Specifically, we used ecological niche modelling (ENM) and measured
spatial connectivity and gene flow (using both mtDNA and microsatellite
markers) across extant populations of P. leprosa in the Trans-Mexican
Volcanic Belt (TVB). Our results indicate significant spatial and genetic
isolation among populations, but we cannot distinguish between isolation
by distance over time or current landscape barriers as mechanisms shaping
population genetic divergences. Combining ecological niche modelling,
spatial connectivity analyses, and historical and contemporary genetic
signatures from different classes of genetic markers allows for inference
of historical evolutionary processes and predictions of the impacts future
climate change will have on the genetic diversity of montane taxa with low
dispersal rates. Pseudoeurycea leprosa is one montane species among many
endemic to this region and thus is a case study for the continued
persistence of spatially and genetically isolated populations in the
highly biodiverse TVB of central Mexico.