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Colour polymorphism influences species' range and extinction risk

2019; Royal Society; Volume: 15; Issue: 7 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1098/rsbl.2019.0228

1744-957X

Yuma Takahashi, Suzuki Noriyuki,

Plant and animal studies

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.