Ecological and evolutionary processes at expanding range margins

• Published in: Nature (London) Vol. 411; no. 6837; pp. 577 - 581
• Main Authors: Thomas, C. D., Bodsworth, E. J., Wilson, R. J., Simmons, A. D., Davies, Z. G., Musche, M., Conradt, L.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 31.05.2001; Nature Publishing; Nature Publishing Group
• Subjects: Animal and plant ecology; Animal, plant and microbial ecology; Animals; Aricia agestis; Biological and medical sciences; Biological Evolution; British Isles; Butterflies & moths; Butterflies - physiology; Climate; Climate change; Conocephalus discolor; Ecology; England; Environment; Evolution; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Geographical distribution; Global warming; Gryllidae; Gryllidae - physiology; Habitats; Hesperia comma; Hesperiidae; Humanities and Social Sciences; Insects; letter; Metrioptera roeselii; multidisciplinary; Population Dynamics; Satyrinae; Science; Science (multidisciplinary); Synecology; Terrestrial ecosystems; Tettigoniidae; United Kingdom; Great Britain; Europe; England; United Kingdom > UK; British Isles; Warming; Phenotype; Geographic distribution; Arthropoda; Insecta; Lepidoptera; Habitat; Invertebrata; Expansion; Climate modification; Colonization; Dispersion
• ISSN: 0028-0836; 1476-4687
• DOI: 10.1038/35079066

Many animals are regarded as relatively sedentary and specialized in marginal parts of their geographical distributions 1 , 2 . They are expected to be slow at colonizing new habitats. Despite this, the cool margins of many species’ distributions have expanded rapidly in association with recent climate warming 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 . We examined four insect species that have expanded their geographical ranges in Britain over the past 20 years. Here we report that two butterfly species have increased the variety of habitat types that they can colonize, and that two bush cricket species show increased fractions of longer-winged (dispersive) individuals in recently founded populations. Both ecological and evolutionary processes are probably responsible for these changes. Increased habitat breadth and dispersal tendencies have resulted in about 3- to 15-fold increases in expansion rates, allowing these insects to cross habitat disjunctions that would have represented major or complete barriers to dispersal before the expansions started. The emergence of dispersive phenotypes will increase the speed at which species invade new environments, and probably underlies the responses of many species to both past 11 and future climate change.