bioRxivJClub
Environmental fluctuations trigger faster evolution and turnover
bioRxiv · · Preprint · Open access
Duchen, Salamin + 1 more
Abstract ↗AI summary
The abstract is read at the publisher; the summary is JClub's.
Increased environmental instability across time and space in a spatially explicit individual-based simulation elevates species-level extinction rates, homogenizing communities while promoting high phenotypic evolution.
- Why it matters: Linking microevolution to macroevolution is hard because it requires tracking how environmental change across scales reshapes population and community dynamics.
- What they did: The authors simulated populations over thousands of generations with shifting environmental gradients, varying the degree of instability to quantify extinction and phenotypic evolution outcomes.
- The result: Extinction patterns are linked to selection against species with low migration ability, narrow environmental tolerance, and limited evolvability, generating expectations testable across evolutionary timescales.
The findingWhy it mattersWhat they didThe result
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