The ecological processes that are crucial to an animal's growth, survival, and reproductive fitness have energetic costs. The imperative for an animal to meet these costs within the energetic constraints of the environment drives many aspects of animal ecology and evolution, yet has largely been overlooked in traditional ecological paradigms. The field of 'ecological energetics' is bringing comparative physiology out of the laboratory and, for the first time, is becoming broadly accessible to field ecologists addressing real-world questions at many spatial and temporal scales.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAssisted colonization-the deliberate translocation of species from unsuitable to suitable regions-is a controversial management tool that aims to prevent the extinction of populations that are unable to migrate in response to climate change or to survive in situ. The identification of suitable translocation sites is therefore a pressing issue. Correlative species distribution models, which are based on occurrence data, are of limited use for site selection for species with historically restricted distributions.
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