Figure 1: Model relationships between an organisms’ experienced climatic range and its temperature tolerance breadth.
From: Central and rear-edge populations can be equally vulnerable to warming
Distance between the solid line and the edge of the dashed box represents the thermal-safety margin. The three solid lines per model represent the variation in climatic ranges throughout a species geographical range. Thermal-safety margins are influenced by whether there is (a) no local adaptation/acclimatization or (b) local adaptation/acclimatization in the upper thermal-tolerance threshold. Models are not mutually exclusive. (a) Experienced climatic ranges differ in absolute temperatures but have similar variability among populations. Thermal-tolerance breadth is the same, but thermal-safety margins decrease towards rear-edge populations. (b) Same conditions as a, but thermal-tolerance breadth changes with range position and thermal-safety margins remain constant among populations.
