School of Natural Sciences, Linnaeus University, 391 82 Kalmar, Sweden.
Proc Biol Sci. 2012 Jul 22;279(1739):2800-6. doi: 10.1098/rspb.2012.0174. Epub 2012 Mar 28.
Environmental changes currently pose severe threats to biodiversity, and reintroductions and translocations are increasingly used to protect declining populations and species from extinction. Theory predicts that establishment success should be higher for more variable groups of dissimilar individuals. To test this 'diversity promotes establishment' hypothesis, we introduced colour polymorphic pygmy grasshoppers (Tetrix subulata) to different sites in the wild. The number of descendants found at the release sites the subsequent year increased with increasing number of colour morphs in the founder group, and variation in founder groups also positively affected colour morph diversity in the established populations. Since colour morphs differ in morphology, physiology, behaviour, reproductive life history and types of niche used, these findings demonstrate that variation among individuals in functionally important traits promotes establishment success under natural conditions, and further indicate that founder diversity may contribute to evolutionary rescue and increased population persistence.
环境变化目前对生物多样性构成了严重威胁，人们越来越多地采用再引入和转移的方法来保护数量减少的种群和物种，使其免受灭绝的威胁。理论预测，对于不同个体之间更为多变的群体来说，建立成功率应该更高。为了验证这个“多样性促进建立”假说，我们将颜色多样的矮小草螽（Tetrix subulata）引入到野外的不同地点。第二年在释放地点发现的后代数量随着创始群体中颜色形态数量的增加而增加，创始群体的变异也对建立种群中的颜色形态多样性产生了积极影响。由于颜色形态在形态、生理、行为、繁殖生活史和使用的生态位类型上存在差异，这些发现表明，在自然条件下，个体在功能重要特征上的变异可以促进建立成功率，进一步表明创始群体的多样性可能有助于进化拯救和增加种群的持久性。
