Effects of variations in adaptation potential on invasion speeds and species ranges

José Méndez-Vera , Gaël Raoul , François Massol (1, 2) , Nicolas Loeuille

1 CIIL - Centre d’Infection et d’Immunité de Lille - INSERM U 1019 - UMR 9017 - UMR 8204
2 Evo-Eco-Paléo (EEP) - Évolution, Écologie et Paléontologie (Evo-Eco-Paleo) - UMR 8198

Confronted with global changes and their potential impacts on biodiversity, an important question is to understand the ecological and evolutionary determinants of species geographical distributions. In order to understand how adaptation in heterogeneous environments constrains such distributions, we analyze how the potential of adaptation along an environmental cline affects the geographical distribution and propagation dynamics (invasion or extinction) of a single species. We re-analyse a model initially proposed by Kirkpatrick and Barton using propagation speed to assess whether species distribution is spatially limited or not. We found that for big adaptation potentials, the species invades space following Fisher’s model, whereas for small adaptation potentials the propagation depends on the evolutionary challenge to overcome. We have explicit approximations for the propagation speeds in both cases. We discuss the utility of these propagation speeds as an eco-evolutionary index based on empirical studies.

Confronted with global changes and their potential impacts on biodiversity, an important question is to understand the ecological and evolutionary determinants of species geographical distributions. In order to understand how adaptation in heterogeneous environments constrains such distributions, we analyze how the potential of adaptation along an environmental cline affects the geographical distribution and propagation dynamics (invasion or extinction) of a single species. We re-analyse a model initially proposed by Kirkpatrick and Barton using propagation speed to assess whether species distribution is spatially limited or not. We found that for big adaptation potentials, the species invades space following Fisher's model, whereas for small adaptation potentials the propagation depends on the evolutionary challenge to overcome. We have explicit approximations for the propagation speeds in both cases. We discuss the utility of these propagation speeds as an eco-evolutionary index based on empirical studies.

Mots clés: local adaptation; partial differential equation model; quantitative genetics; linear gradient

Domaines: Biodiversité

José Méndez-Vera, Gaël Raoul, François Massol, Nicolas Loeuille. Effects of variations in adaptation potential on invasion speeds and species ranges. 2020. ⟨hal-02942322⟩