Biological insurance theory predicts that, in a variable environment, aggregate ecosystem
properties will vary less in more diverse communities because declines in the performance …

Biological systems have similarities to efficient financial portfolios; the emergent properties
of aggregate systems are often less volatile than their components. These portfolio effects …

This chapter provides an overview of life history theory (LHT). LHT conceptualizes specific
allocation tradeoffs in terms of three broad, fundamental trade‐offs: the present‐future …

Evolvability is the ability of a biological system to produce phenotypic variation that is both
heritable and adaptive. It has long been the subject of anecdotal observations and …

Persisters are transiently tolerant variants that allow populations to avoid eradication by
antibiotic treatment. Their antibiotic tolerance is non-genetic, not inheritable and results from …

In an era of rapid climate change, there is a pressing need to understand how organisms will
cope with faster and less predictable variation in environmental conditions. Here we develop …

Plant secondary metabolites (PSM s) are ubiquitous in plants and play many ecological
roles. Each compound can vary in presence and/or quantity, and the composition of the …

Variability in the environment defines the structure and dynamics of all living systems, from
organisms to ecosystems. Species have evolved traits and strategies that allow them to …

Across the tree of life, populations have evolved the capacity to contend with suboptimal
conditions by engaging in dormancy, whereby individuals enter a reversible state of reduced …

The amino acid sequence of a protein affects both its structure and its function. Thus, the
ability to modify the sequence, and hence the structure and activity, of individual proteins in …