Mismatches between demographic niches and geographic distributions are strongest in poorly dispersed and highly persistent plant species.

ABSTRACT: The ecological niche of a species describes the variation in population growth rates along environmental gradients that drives geographic range dynamics. Niches are thus central for understanding and forecasting species' geographic distributions. However, theory predicts that migration limitation, source-sink dynamics, and time-lagged local extinction can cause mismatches between niches and geographic distributions. It is still unclear how relevant these niche-distribution mismatches are for biodiversity dynamics and how they depend on species life-history traits. This is mainly due to a lack of the comprehensive, range-wide demographic data needed to directly infer ecological niches for multiple species. Here we quantify niches from extensive demographic measurements along environmental g

SUBMITTER: Pagel J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7035498 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature