Letter
Importance of Photic Constraints Depends on the Population

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tree.2021.03.008Get rights and content

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Existing Phenotypes Determine Importance of Photic Constraints

Populations evolved to optimize fitness within environmental and phylogenetic constraints; despite this, variation often exists in phenotypes (not limited to biological timekeeping [1,5]) used to both align to and perform under the diel light–dark cycle and annual transition in photoperiod [4,6., 7., 8.]. As individuals within a population are exposed to changes in the photic environment with a latitudinal shift in distribution, phenotypes that confer positive fitness will be favored, as

Life History Can Affect the Ability to Cross a Photic Barrier

Life history influences a population’s response to global change because generation time may promote, inhibit, or delay propagation of advantageous phenotypes [1., 2., 3.] and young, naïve individuals may be more adept at adjusting to novel environments than older, established individuals [8]. Life history may thereby influence when phenotypes are advantageous and whether their propagation keeps pace with a dynamic mismatch between latitudinal change in temperature and light. These disparities

Conclusions

The importance of photic constraints on a focal population’s distribution depends on its contemporary properties shaped by its ecology and evolutionary history. Photic barriers are therefore taxon specific and neither fundamentally invariable nor impassable. As a result, the photic environment may act as a barrier [5], a filter [2], or have minimal importance [1] to populations shifting distributions latitudinally. Furthermore, increasing evidence indicates that interspecific interactions that

Acknowledgments

I thank B. Helm and H.L. Kenyon for comments improving the manuscript and the Carlsberg Foundation, Denmark for funding (CF18-0987).

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