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Title: Spatial storage effect facilitates evolutionary rescue in rapidly changing environments
Abstract The storage effect is a plausible natural mechanism that generates balanced genetic polymorphism in temporally varying environments. Balanced polymorphism may facilitate evolutionary rescue, promoting the persistence of populations otherwise destined for extinction. However, it is unknown whether the storage effect can be established in small populations whose size is allowed to vary, and if so, whether it will lead to evolutionary rescue. In this study, we investigate whether the spatial storage effect emerges and facilitates evolutionary rescue across small populations of variable sizes that inhabit heterogeneous, temporally varying environments and exchange migrants. We use an eco-evolutionary model to examine the phenomenon under a wide set of conditions, including the magnitudes and periods of temporal variation, habitat harshness, migration rates, the degrees of spatial heterogeneity, and increasing fitness oscillations over time, all within the framework of the logistic population growth model. We find that the storage effect emerges and that it increases the persistence of populations in harsh, temporally varying habitats beyond levels expected in the absence of the mechanism. This mechanism demonstrates how rapid evolution broadens the known conditions for population persistence in the face of rapid and continuous environmental changes.  more » « less
Award ID(s):
2425290
PAR ID:
10654398
Author(s) / Creator(s):
;
Editor(s):
Van Cleve, Jeremy; Morlon, Hélène
Publisher / Repository:
Oxford Academic
Date Published:
Journal Name:
Evolution
Volume:
79
Issue:
12
ISSN:
0014-3820
Page Range / eLocation ID:
2654 to 2666
Format(s):
Medium: X
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
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