Abstract
Signatures of past changes in population size have been detected in
genome-wide variation in many species. However, the causes of such
demographic changes and the extent to which they are shared across
co-distributed species remain poorly understood. During Pleistocene
glacial maxima, many temperate European species were confined to
southern refugia. While vicariance and range expansion processes
associated with glacial cycles have been widely studied, little is known
about the demographic history of refugial populations, and the extent
and causes of demographic variation among co-distributed species. We
used whole genome sequence data to reconstruct and compare demographic
histories during the Quaternary for Iberian refuge populations in a
single ecological guild (seven species of chalcid parasitoid wasps
associated with oak cynipid galls). We find support for large changes in
effective population size through the Pleistocene that coincide with
major climate events. However, there is little evidence that the timing,
direction and magnitude of demographic change are shared across species,
suggesting that demographic histories are largely idiosyncratic even at
the scale of a single glacial refugium.