Data from: Maintaining local adaptation is key for evolutionary rescue and long-term persistence of populations experiencing habitat loss and a changing environment

The Anthropocene is marked by increased population extirpations and
redistributions driven primarily by human-induced climate change and
habitat loss. Habitat loss affects populations by removing occupiable
area, which reduces carrying capacity through a reduction in resources,
and fragmenting the landscape, which can reduce gene flow with potential
consequences for adaptation to changing environmental conditions. Real
patterns of habitat loss are non-random, often clustered in space and
within a subset of environmental conditions (e.g., primarily in the
valleys of a mountain-valley region). Spatial clustering of habitat loss
can alter population connectivity, and environmental clustering can shift
the mean as well as decrease the variance in environmental conditions
available to populations. We evaluate how spatial and environmental biases
underlying habitat loss impact the survival of populations (as a proxy of
evolutionary rescue) exposed to both habitat loss and environmental
change. To do this, we simulated landscapes with a spatially
autocorrelated temperature gradient which individuals were locally adapted
to. These landscapes were then subject to both non-random habitat loss
(e.g., clustered based on the temperature) and increasing temperatures. We
find that evolutionary rescue in response to increasing temperatures is
hampered when habitat loss results in small patches, reduces the breadth
of environmental conditions, and is concentrated on the cooler end of the
temperature gradient. Our findings highlight the importance of maintaining
a wide breadth of environmental conditions available to populations
subjected to habitat loss, and the disproportionate role that colder sites
play as a buffer to increasing temperatures, compared to warmer sites. Our
findings also add a new dimension to the Single Large or Several Small
(SLOSS) conservation discussion, stressing the importance of environmental
diversity regardless of patch size.