New paper in Oikos

Environmental fluctuations promote intraspecific diversity and population persistence via inflationary effects Daniel J. Wieczynski & David A. Vasseur

In this study, we find that fluctuating environments can increase functional diversity within a species by altering competition between distinct phenotypic strategies. Environmental fluctuations can cause low-fitness phenotypes to persist through so-called 'inflationary effects' in which they rapidly increase in abundance during favorable conditions. These effects may be so strong that a species can persist even when it consists entirely of phenotypes with average negative growth rates!