Graduate School of Science, Chiba University, Chiba, Japan.
Faculty of Agriculture and Marine Science, Kochi University, Kochi, Japan.
Biol Lett. 2019 Jul 26;15(7):20190228. doi: 10.1098/rsbl.2019.0228. Epub 2019 Jul 24.
Polymorphisms in a population are expected to increase the growth rate and the stability of the population, leading to the expansion of geographical distribution and mitigation of extinction risk of a species. However, the generality of such ecological consequences of colour polymorphism remains uncertain. Here, via a comparative approach, we assessed whether colour polymorphisms influence climatic niche breadth and extinction risk in some groups of damselflies, butterflies and vertebrates. The climatic niche breadth was greater, and extinction risk was lower in polymorphic species than in monomorphic species in all taxa analysed. The results suggest that colour polymorphism facilitates range expansion and species persistence.
在一个种群中，多态性预计会增加种群的增长率和稳定性，从而导致物种的地理分布范围扩大和灭绝风险降低。然而，这种颜色多态性的生态后果的普遍性仍然不确定。在这里，我们通过比较的方法，评估了颜色多态性是否会影响一些蜻蜓、蝴蝶和脊椎动物类群的气候生态位宽度和灭绝风险。在所有分析的分类群中，多态性物种的气候生态位宽度更大，灭绝风险更低。结果表明，颜色多态性有助于扩大分布范围和物种的生存。
