How resource abundance and resource stochasticity affect organisms' range sizes.

ABSTRACT:

Background

From megafauna to amoebas, the amount of space heterotrophic organisms use is thought to be tightly linked to the availability of resources within their habitats, such that organisms living in productive habitats generally require less space than those in resource-poor habitats. This hypothesis has widespread empirical support, but existing studies have focused primarily on responses to spatiotemporal changes in mean resources, while responses to unpredictable changes in resources (i.e., variance in resources or resource stochasticity) are still largely unknown. Since organisms adjust to variable environmental conditions, failing to consider the effects of resource unpredictability can result in an insufficient understanding of an organism's range size.

Methods

We

SUBMITTER: Mezzini S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11927164 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature