Data from: Genetic co-structure in a meta-community under threat of habitat fragmentation

Habitat fragmentation increasingly threatens the services provided by
natural communities and ecosystem worldwide. An understanding of the
eco-evolutionary processes underlying fragmentation-compromised
communities in natural settings is lacking, yet critical to realistic and
sustainable conservation. Through integrating the multivariate genetic,
biotic and abiotic facets of a natural community module experiencing
various degrees of habitat fragmentation, we provide unique insights into
the processes underlying community functioning in real, natural
conditions. The focal community module comprises a parasitic butterfly of
conservation concern, and its two obligatory host species, a plant and an
ant. We show that both historical dispersal and ongoing habitat
fragmentation shape population genetic diversity of the butterfly
Phengaris alcon and its most limited host species (the plant Gentiana
pneumonanthe). Genetic structure of the individual species was strongly
driven by geographical structure, altitude and landscape connectivity.
Strikingly, however, was the strong degree of genetic co-structure among
the three species that could not be explained by the spatial variables
under study. This finding suggests that factors other than spatial
configuration, including co-evolutionary dynamics and shared dispersal
pathways, cause parallel genetic structure among interacting species.
While the exact contribution of coevolution and shared dispersal routes on
the genetic variation within and among communities deserves further
attention, our findings demonstrate a considerable degree of genetic
parallelism in natural meta-communities. The significant effect of
landscape connectivity on the genetic diversity and structure of the
butterfly also suggests that habitat fragmentation may threaten the
functioning of the community module on the long run.