Towards an interactive, process‐based approach to understanding range shifts: developmental and environmental dependencies matter

Many species are undergoing distributional changes in response to climate change. However, wide variability in range shifting rates has been observed across taxa, and even among closely-related species. Attempts to link climate-mediated range shifts to traits has often produced weak or conflicting results. Here we investigate interactive effects of developmental processes and environmental stress on the expression of traits relevant to range shifts. We use an individual-based modelling approach to assess how different developmental strategies affect range shift rates under a range of environmental conditions. We find that under stressful conditions, such as at the margins of the species’ fundamental niche, investment in prolonged development leads to the greatest rates of range shifting, especially when longer time in development leads to of improved fecundity and dispersal-related traits. However, under benign conditions, and when traits are less developmentally plastic, shorter develo...