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Extreme events

Spatial sorting creates winners and losers

Nature Ecology & Evolution volume 7, pages 1756–1758 (2023)Cite this article

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A catastrophic flooding event offered an unusual chance to demonstrate that spatial sorting — the differential dispersal of phenotypes — occurs in soapberry bugs as they recolonize after a major disturbance. But this process does not always prove to be adaptive.

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Fig. 1: Simplified schematic showing spatial sorting owing to recolonization after hurricane-induced flooding.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank A. Hendry and A. Lopez Sepulcre for reading an earlier version of this article.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Ecology and Evolution, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA

    Swanne P. Gordon & Caleb J. Axelrod

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  1. Swanne P. Gordon
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  2. Caleb J. Axelrod
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Correspondence to Swanne P. Gordon.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Gordon, S.P., Axelrod, C.J. Spatial sorting creates winners and losers. Nat Ecol Evol 7, 1756–1758 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-023-02217-3

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