Diversity Fights Against Extinction During Environmental Shifts

One of the biggest challenges for living organisms is the constant shifts in environmental conditions, many of which are brought on by human land use and climate change.

These shifts can be catastrophic to species if they cannot adapt and adjust to their geographic distribution. Differences in individuals are important, and it seems that in this case, less is not more.

A new study by researchers from Linnaeus University in Sweden, published in Ecography, showed that a higher degree of individual variation is beneficial to populations and species when adjusting to environmental shifts.

These results will allow for more efficient protection and restoration of biodiversity, the authors said, according to the release.

Scientists have previously suggested that phenotypic and genetic variation among individuals would promote success of populations and species that are facing environmental changes, but this has never been evaluated before.

"Our review provides strong evidence that more variable populations are less vulnerable to environmental changes, show decreased fluctuations in population size, have superior establishment success, larger distribution ranges, and are less extinction prone, compared with less variable populations or species," Lead author Professor Anders Forsman, said.

The belief is that when conditions are harshest, the more diversity among individuals in a species, the more likely that species is to adapt and survive.

"Some of the experimental studies included in our review comprise two or more environmental treatments," study co-author Dr. Lena Wennersten, said. "These experiments indicate that the benefits of diversity are generally expressed more strongly under stressful than under benign conditions".

The study showed that the relationship linking benefits to diversity is more often linear than curvilinear. However, some studies are contradictory, pointing to an optimal level of diversity, while other studies suggest the benefits of diversity are in accordance with the law of diminishing returns.

The authors stated that the shape of the linking relationship of diversity and population fitness shows us how to allocate conservation resources in the best way to protect and restore biodiversity.

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