Data from: Relationship between the location of Pleistocene refugia and geographic and environmental centrality in a plant-pollinator mutualism from Patagonia

Glacial refugia are habitats where species can persist during climate
change, and they are of high conservation value due to their role as
hotspots of genetic diversity. Therefore, it is relevant to understand
factors that determine the distribution of these refugia across species’
ranges and of their mutualists. According to the CPH, as genetic diversity
is highest in the geographic range centre of the species'
distribution, it is expected that refugia coincide with this centre, if
the geographic and environmental centroids are coupled. We proposed an
integrative framework that combines genetic diversity, current and past
distribution range, and historical ecological niche to investigate the
association between Pleistocene refugia and geographic and environmental
centrality in a plant-pollinator mutualism from Patagonia. We identified a
clear pattern in which genetic diversity was negatively associated with
distance to environmental centroids and positively with distance to
geographic centres of Centris cineraria, Calceolaria polyrhiza, and their
mutualistic interaction. Our results show that glacial refugia can be
geographically peripheral but ecologically central, and that highly
specialized mutualism would share the same refugia. Focusing on
spatio-temporal dynamics of environmental rather than geographic centroids
can contribute to a better understanding of aspects related to the
conservation and evolution of population species.