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1. Linking geographic distribution and niche through estimation of niche density

   https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2656.70052  

   Dallas, Tad_A; Ten_Caten, Cleber (May 2025, Journal of Animal Ecology)

   Abstract The availability of suitable niche space constrains where species can occur geographically. This tie between niche space and geographic space is crucial when estimating species geographic distributions in a changing climate. However, specific combinations of climatic conditions may be overrepresented in geographic space, highlighting the potential disconnect between climatic niche area and geographic range size.We develop a niche density estimator that accounts for the geographic availability of climatic niche space, relate this to traditional estimates of niche area and explore how these niche estimates are related to species geographic range size.To do this, we use data on over 230,000 species recorded in the Global Biodiversity Information Facility, providing a thorough test of the sensitivity of niche estimation technique on geographic range size–climatic niche scaling relationships, and clarifying the link between geographic space and environmental space by considering the density of available environments in environmental space.Niche density was more strongly related to species geographic range size than niche area, highlighting the role of the geographic availability of climatic niche space in biogeographic relationships. As species geographic ranges and environmental conditions change, understanding the ecological and evolutionary determinants of this positive scaling between geographic range size and niche size is an important research frontier. 

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2. Evolvability Costs of Niche Expansion

   https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tig.2019.10.003  

   Bono, Lisa M.; Draghi, Jeremy A.; Turner, Paul E. (January 2020, Trends in Genetics)
3. Niche conservatism predominates in adaptive radiation: comparing the diversification of Hawaiian arthropods using ecological niche modelling

   https://doi.org/doi.org/10.1093/biolinnean/blz023  

   Hiller, AE; Koo, MS; Goodman, KR; Shaw, KL; O’Grady, PM; Gillespie, RG (April 2019, Biological journal of the Linnean Society)

   The role of the environmental niche in fostering ecological divergence during adaptive radiation remains enigmatic. In this study, we examine the interplay between environmental niche divergence and conservatism in the context of adaptive radiation on oceanic islands, by characterizing the niche breadth of four Hawaiian arthropod radiations: Tetragnatha spiders (Tetragnathidae Latreille, 1804), Laupala crickets (Gryllidae Otte, 1994), a clade of Drosophila flies (Drosophilidae Fallén, 1823) and Nesosydne planthoppers (Delphacidae Kirkaldy, 1907). We assembled occurrence datasets for the four lineages, modelled their distributions and quantified niche overlap. All four groups occupy the islands in distinct ways, highlighting the contrasting axes of diversification for different lineages. Laupala and Nesosydne have opposite environmental niche extents (broad and narrow, respectively), whereas Tetragnatha and Drosophila share relatively intermediate tolerances. Temperature constrains the distributions of all four radiations. Tests of phylogenetic signal suggest that, for Tetragnatha and Drosophila, closely related species exhibit similar environmental niches; thus, diversification is associated with niche conservatism. Sister species comparisons also show that populations often retain similar environmental tolerances, although exceptions do occur. Results imply that diversification does not occur through ecological speciation; instead, adaptive radiation occurs largely within a single environment. 

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4. Fundamental Flaws with the Fundamental Niche

   https://doi.org/10.1093/icb/icz084  

   Angilletta, Michael J; Sears, Michael W; Levy, Ofir; Youngblood, Jacob P; VandenBrooks, John M (May 2019, Integrative and Comparative Biology)

   Abstract For more than 70 years, Hutchinson’s concept of the fundamental niche has guided ecological research. Hutchinson envisioned the niche as a multidimensional hypervolume relating the fitness of an organism to relevant environmental factors. Here, we challenge the utility of the concept to modern ecologists, based on its inability to account for environmental variation and phenotypic plasticity. We have ample evidence that the frequency, duration, and sequence of abiotic stress influence the survivorship and performance of organisms. Recent work shows that organisms also respond to the spatial configuration of abiotic conditions. Spatiotemporal variation of the environment interacts with the genotype to generate a unique phenotype at each life stage. These dynamics cannot be captured adequately by a multidimensional hypervolume. Therefore, we recommend that ecologists abandon the niche as a tool for predicting the persistence of species and embrace mechanistic models of population growth that incorporate spatiotemporal dynamics. 

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5. Future of the human climate niche

   https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1910114117  

   Xu, Chi; Kohler, Timothy A.; Lenton, Timothy M.; Svenning, Jens-Christian; Scheffer, Marten (May 2020, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences)

   All species have an environmental niche, and despite technological advances, humans are unlikely to be an exception. Here, we demonstrate that for millennia, human populations have resided in the same narrow part of the climatic envelope available on the globe, characterized by a major mode around ∼11 °C to 15 °C mean annual temperature (MAT). Supporting the fundamental nature of this temperature niche, current production of crops and livestock is largely limited to the same conditions, and the same optimum has been found for agricultural and nonagricultural economic output of countries through analyses of year-to-year variation. We show that in a business-as-usual climate change scenario, the geographical position of this temperature niche is projected to shift more over the coming 50 y than it has moved since 6000 BP. Populations will not simply track the shifting climate, as adaptation in situ may address some of the challenges, and many other factors affect decisions to migrate. Nevertheless, in the absence of migration, one third of the global population is projected to experience a MAT >29 °C currently found in only 0.8% of the Earth’s land surface, mostly concentrated in the Sahara. As the potentially most affected regions are among the poorest in the world, where adaptive capacity is low, enhancing human development in those areas should be a priority alongside climate mitigation. 

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