Yucca Torrey Pines (IMAGE)

National Institute for Mathematical and Biological Synthesis (NIMBioS)

Yucca Torrey Pines

Caption

Individuals of the same species sometimes occupy radically different environments. For example, some populations of the Mojave Yucca (Yucca shidigera) live sites along the coast of the Pacific Ocean, a region with a relatively moderate climate, such as the one in this photo, while others live in quite dry portions of the Colorado Desert in Joshua Tree National Park in California. A new study published in the journal Systematic Biology indicates that in some circumstances this observation can mislead ecologists into concluding that distinct populations have different environmental requirements.

Credit

William Godsoe/NIMBioS

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