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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!


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