Climate change, models, mimics and predators: A complicated relationship
Published Date: 12/11/2018
Source: phys.org
Climate change as a disruptive force has been studied in terms of its effects on direct interactions in ecological relationships, such as those between predator and prey, for example. Until now however, little has been known about how the effect of a changing climate on the annual emergence cycles of species—phenological synchrony—may be affecting more complicated evolutionary relationships such as those within a Batesian mimicry complex. In a Batesian complex, one species mimics the behavior of another (model) species that has evolved defensive measures against a third predator species.