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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Oct 3, 2025

Thermal Limits Determination for Zooplankton Using a Heat Block

Thermal Limits Determination for Zooplankton Using a Heat Block

Published on: November 18, 2022

Temporal variation may have diverse impacts on range limits.

Robert D Holt¹, Michael Barfield¹, James H Peniston¹

¹Department of Biology, The University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611, USA.

Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological Sciences

|February 21, 2022

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Environmental fluctuations can alter species

Keywords:

Allee effect Jensen's inequality gradient range limit source–sink temporal variability

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Area of Science:

Ecology
Evolutionary Biology
Environmental Science

Background:

Environmental fluctuations are common in nature.
The impact of non-directional temporal variation on species' range limits is understudied.
Organisms exhibit nonlinear responses to environmental conditions.

Purpose of the Study:

To synthesize literature and model insights on temporal variation's effects on range limits.
To explore how temporal variation influences ecological and evolutionary dynamics.
To inform conservation and management strategies for species ranges.

Main Methods:

Literature synthesis.
Conceptual modeling.
Analysis of simple population models (source-sink dynamics).
Exploration of competition models along mortality gradients.

Main Results:

Temporal variation can directionally alter long-term growth rates, leading to range expansion or contraction.
Variation can facilitate transitions between alternative states, aiding range expansion (e.g., via dispersal variation).
Temporal variation increases extinction risk but can also drive adaptations for larger ranges.

Conclusions:

Understanding temporal variation is crucial for eco-evolutionary dynamics at range limits.
Temporal variation presents both challenges (extinction risk) and opportunities (adaptation) for species ranges.
Effective conservation requires accounting for environmental fluctuations.