Data and code from: Spatial storage effect facilitates evolutionary rescue in rapidly changing environments

The storage effect is a plausible natural mechanism that generates
balanced genetic polymorphism in temporally varying environments. Balanced
polymorphism may facilitate evolutionary rescue, promoting the persistence
of populations otherwise destined for extinction. However, it is unknown
whether the storage effect can be established in small populations whose
size is allowed to vary, and if so, whether it will lead to evolutionary
rescue. In this study, we investigate whether the spatial storage effect
emerges and facilitates evolutionary rescue across small populations of
variable sizes that inhabit heterogeneous, temporally varying environments
and exchange migrants. We use an eco-evolutionary model to examine the
phenomenon under a wide set of conditions, including the magnitudes and
periods of temporal variation, habitat harshness, migration rates, the
degrees of spatial heterogeneity, and increasing fitness oscillations over
time, all within the framework of the logistic population growth model. We
find that the storage effect emerges and that it increases the persistence
of populations in harsh, temporally varying habitats beyond levels
expected in the absence of the mechanism. This mechanism demonstrates how
rapid evolution broadens the known conditions for population persistence
in the face of rapid and continuous environmental changes.