Range Expansion

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Range expansion refers to the process by which a species increases its geographic distribution, often due to environmental changes, ecological interactions, or human activities. This phenomenon can impact biodiversity, ecosystem dynamics, and species interactions, and is a key area of study in ecology and conservation biology.

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Key research themes

1. How can computational search algorithms be optimized to reduce surplus node generation and improve memory and time efficiency in range-based pathfinding problems?

This research area investigates improvements over classical A* search algorithms in domains with large branching factors, focusing on minimizing the generation of surplus nodes—nodes with costs exceeding the optimal solution cost—which negatively impact both memory and runtime efficiency. By incorporating heuristic and domain-specific knowledge to control node expansions and avoid unnecessary computations, these improved algorithms target range expansion scenarios effectively, especially where pathfinding is guided by admissible heuristics.

Enhanced partial expansion a

by Ariel Felner

2021

Key finding: Introduced Enhanced Partial Expansion A* (EPEA*), which improves upon Partial Expansion A* (PEA*) by using an Operator Selection Function (OSF) that leverages a priori domain- and heuristic-specific knowledge to generate only... Read more

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2. What formal methods allow over-approximation and efficient computation of output ranges in neural networks, and how can they facilitate safety verification in range expansions of network outputs?

This theme focuses on formal verification approaches to compute output ranges of feed-forward neural networks, particularly with ReLU activation functions, leveraging abstraction techniques to reduce computational complexity. It addresses how interval neural networks (INNs) can be constructed to over-approximate output ranges, enabling scalability in safety-critical applications where reachable sets and safe operation ranges must be determined under uncertain inputs. The goal is to maintain soundness while improving verification tractability within expanded input and output domains.

Abstraction based Output Range Analysis for Neural Networks

by Zahra Rahimi Afzal

2020, Neural Information Processing Systems (NeurIPS)

Key finding: Presented a novel abstraction technique that reduces a given feed-forward ReLU network to an interval neural network (INN) with fewer neurons and interval weights, over-approximating the original output range. By encoding... Read more

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3. How do urbanization, land cover, and human population density changes influence large carnivore range expansions in Europe?

This theme investigates correlations between changes in human population density, land cover (forest and agriculture), and legislative protections with the distributional expansions of three large carnivores—grey wolf, Eurasian lynx, and brown bear—across Europe. It integrates multi-temporal species distribution models with landscape and socio-demographic data over two decades to understand habitat suitability changes and how anthropogenic factors promote or restrict large carnivore recolonization and range expansion in fragmented human-dominated territories.

Large carnivore expansion in Europe is associated with human population density and land cover changes

by Igor Trbojevic

2024, Diversity and Distributions

Key finding: Using species distribution models fitted with over 50,000 occurrence points and 24 years of land cover and human population data, the study showed that increasing habitat suitability for large carnivores was positively... Read more

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4. What behavioral and ecological mechanisms contribute to successful colonization and range expansion in social species and marine top predators?

This theme explores how animal prospecting behavior, social information use, and habitat selection influence dispersal decisions in social species such as Audouin's gulls, as well as how large-scale breeding range shifts affect foraging ecology and population dynamics in top marine predators like Laysan albatrosses. It synthesizes telemetry and long-term monitoring data to understand how range expansions impact the species' use of novel environments, breeding performance, and foraging strategies in new ecological ranges.

High frequency of prospecting for informed dispersal and colonisation in a social species at large spatial scale

by Pep Arcos

2023, Oecologia

Key finding: Tracking of colonial Audouin's gulls revealed that 65% of birds prospect occupied patches and 62% visited empty patches that were colonized later, demonstrating high frequency of informed dispersal and colonization behavior... Read more

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Successful Long-Distance Breeding Range Expansion of a Top Marine Predator

by Michelle Antolos

2022, Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution

Key finding: The study documented a 4,000-km breeding range expansion of Laysan albatrosses from the Central Pacific to the Eastern Pacific off Baja California and demonstrated distinct at-sea distribution, habitat use, and foraging... Read more

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5. How can range reduction and modular arithmetic techniques be utilized to optimize computation of mathematical functions over expanded argument ranges?

This theme encompasses algorithmic strategies for decomposing large-range function evaluations into computations over smaller, manageable argument intervals, employing modular and multiplicative range reduction techniques. These methods enable the usage of polynomial or rational approximations within convergence domains, improving computational accuracy and efficiency for transcendental functions. The focus is on addressing challenges due to argument size, cancellation errors, and efficient reduction steps critical for implementations in numerical and computer arithmetic.

Modular Range Reduction

by Jean-Michel Muller

2024, Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)

Key finding: Developed a range reduction algorithm that accurately computes reduced arguments for functions like sine, cosine, exponential, and logarithm by decomposing computations using modular arithmetic and carefully chosen constants... Read more

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All papers in Range Expansion

A major increase in snake pipefish (Entelurus aequoreus) in northern European seas since 2003: potential implications for seabird breeding success

by Doug Beare and

2007, Marine Biology

Since the early 2000s routine Wsh surveys have recorded increasing numbers of snake pipeWsh, Entelurus aequoreus, in the northeast Atlantic. Fishermen and divers have also commented on this increase and pipeWsh have started to appear in... more

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Introduced marine species in Croatian waters (Eastern Adriatic Sea)

by Jakov Dulčić

2013, Mediterranean Marine Science

The Croatian part of the Adriatic Sea covers more than 35% of the total Croatian territory, which means that monitoring changes in marine ecosystems and the conservation of biodiversity are of great importance. Following global changes,... more

Table 1: List of non indigenous species introduced in the Eastern Adriatic Sea (Croatia) by human or unknown vectors. Legend: Location: NA — Northern Adriatic, MA — Middle Adriatic, SA — Southern Adriatic; Vector: AQ — aquaculture, LM — Lessepsian migrant, SH — shipping, , UN — unknown; Status: C — casual, E — established, S — spreading.

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Wind, Waves, and Wing Loading: Morphological Specialization May Limit Range Expansion of Endangered Albatrosses

by Scott Shaffer and

2008, PLoS ONE

Among the varied adaptations for avian flight, the morphological traits allowing large-bodied albatrosses to capitalize on wind and wave energy for efficient long-distance flight are unparalleled. Consequently, the biogeographic distribution of most albatrosses is limited to the windiest oceanic regions on earth; however, exceptions exist. Species breeding in the North and Central Pacific Ocean (Phoebastria spp.) inhabit regions of lower wind speed and wave height than southern hemisphere genera, and have large intrageneric variation in body size and aerodynamic performance. Here, we test the hypothesis that regional wind and wave regimes explain observed differences in Phoebastria albatross morphology and we compare their aerodynamic performance to representatives from the other three genera of this globally distributed avian family. In the North and Central Pacific, two species (short-tailed P. albatrus and waved P. irrorata) are markedly larger, yet have the smallest breeding ranges near highly productive coastal upwelling systems. Short-tailed albatrosses, however, have 60% higher wing loading (weight per area of lift) compared to waved albatrosses. Indeed, calculated aerodynamic performance of waved albatrosses, the only tropical albatross species, is more similar to those of their smaller congeners (black-footed P. nigripes and Laysan P. immutabilis), which have relatively low wing loading and much larger foraging ranges that include central oceanic gyres of relatively low productivity. Globally, the aerodynamic performance of short-tailed and waved albatrosses are most anomalous for their body sizes, yet consistent with wind regimes within their breeding season foraging ranges. Our results are the first to integrate global wind and wave patterns with albatross aerodynamics, thereby identifying morphological specialization that may explain limited breeding ranges of two endangered albatross species. These results are further relevant to understanding past and potentially predicting future distributional limits of albatrosses globally, particularly with respect to climate change effects on basin-scale and regional wind fields.

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Relationships between environment and mountain riparian plant communities associated with two rare tertiary-relict tree species, Euptelea pleiospermum (Eupteleaceae) and Cercidiphyllum japonicum (Cercidiphyllaceae)

by Xin Wei

2010

Euptelea pleiospermum and Cercidiphyllum japonicum are dominant relictual tree species of the riparian plant communities in the subtropical region of Shennongjia Mountains, central China. Community survey and multivariate analysis were... more

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Biological Control Through Intraguild Predation: Case Studies in Pest Control, Invasive Species and Range Expansion

by Mark A . Lewis

2007, Bulletin of Mathematical Biology

Intraguild predation (IGP), the interaction between species that eat each other and compete for shared resources, is ubiquitous in nature. We document its occurrence across a wide range of taxonomic groups and ecosystems with particular... more

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Prosodic realization of information structure categories in standard chinese

by Bettina Braun and

This paper investigates the prosodic realization of information structure categories in Standard Chinese. A number of proper names with different tonal combinations were elicited as a grammatical subject in five pragmatic contexts.... more

Table 1: Test Items 2.2 Subjects and Recording

As mentioned earlier, our main interest lies in the relation between the two dimensions of the information structure partitions (i.e. theme vs. rheme and background vs. focus) and the difference between normal rheme focus vs. corrective theme focus. Thus, we will first compare the effect of these two dimensions and their possible interaction by analyzing data elicited with pragmatic contexts exemplified in 1-4 ($3.1). We then proceed to report on the differences between the two types of rheme focus by comparing utterances elicited in contexts 4 and 5 (§ 3.2). Because tone had either a main effect or a significant interaction with context, separate analyses for the two tonal combinations were conducted. Table II. Results of an ANOVA with Subject as random factor; Pragmatic Context and Lexical tone as fixed factors.

While both duration and Fy were employed by the speakers to indicate the information structure partitions, they were not necessarily concurrent. The durational marking of theme vs. theme exhibited a quite consistent pattern (with comparable magnitude) across focus and background conditions (Fig. 2a-b & 4a-b), but the F, range marking seemed to be sensitive to the property of the lexical tones. The Rising tone exhibited a more pronounced difference between rheme and theme in the focus condition compared to the background condition (Fig. 3a vs. 5b). Or, to phrase it differently, the focus- background difference was marked more saliently in the rheme condition than the theme condition. The Falling tone, however, showed no such an effect (Fig. 3b vs. 5a). Note that when following a Rising tone (Fig. 3b), the Falling tone exhibited a much more expanded Fp range than when it preceded a Rising tone (Fig. 5a). This is probably related to the tonal coarticulation effect, in particular the delayed alignment of the Fy peak of a Rising tone relative to the edge of the tone-carrying syllable (Xu, 2001). The expanded Fy range of the Falling tone in Fig. 3b could be in part due to the preceding Rising tone.

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Relating dispersal and range expansion of California sea otters

by Jean-Sebastien Lauzon-Guay

2007, Theoretical Population Biology

Linking dispersal and range expansion of invasive species has long challenged theoretical and quantitative ecologists. Subtle differences in dispersal can yield large differences in geographic spread, with speeds ranging from constant to... more

Redistribution kernels fit to California sea otter dispersal data Maximum likelihood was used to estimate the parameter, a, and likelihood ratios to compare fits among redistribution kernels to dispersal data (see also Table 3 and Fig. 1). Dispersal distances for 22 radio tagged female otters were calculated from Ralls et al. (1996). Table 2

Fig. 1. The relationships between dispersal and range expansion for the California sea otter. Column (A) shows the frequency distributions of dispersal distances per juvenile and adult female otter per year (black bars) and the frequency distributions of the corresponding best-fit kernels given in Table 2 (grey bars) (distances were not binned in the maximum likelihood estimation). Column (C) shows the range expansion of otters moving south (filled circles) and north (open circles) in kilometers. Thick grey lines show the predicted range expansion based on numerical simulations of the sea otter integrodifference model with dispersal kernels from Table 2 and column (A). Thin black lines are the least-square best fits of the model to the southern and northern fronts, obtained by leaving « in the corresponding kernel as a free parameter. Column (B) shows the relationships among kernels fit from dispersal data (thick grey lines), the southern expanding front (thin black lines; S), and the northern expanding front (thin black lines; N). Simulations were conducted on a domain length of 1000km with 32,768 grid points using a fast Fourier transform algorithm and detection threshold of 0.5 otters per kilometer. Using Eq. (6), the predicted invasion speed from model 1 (containing the Gaussian kernel), was 2.75 km yr7!, slightly greater than 2.41kmyr—! predicted by model 2. The observed velocities of range expansion were calculated as the slope of the linear regression of range expansion vs. time data for the northern and southern fronts, excluding the initial data in 1914. Observed velocities were 2.63kmyr7! (95%CI: 2.22, 3.03) for the north, There was a clear ranking of dispersal kernels fit to the dispersal data (Table 2): model 3 was statistically the best fit, while the Gaussian (model 1) was the poorest. In Fig. we illustrate the relationship between dispersal and range expansion for each model. Differences in kernel shape among fits to dispersal and range expansion data ranged from slight deviations for model 3 to dramatic changes in shape for model 1. The shapes of the fat-tailed kernels (models 3 and 4) were well preserved across fits to dispersa and range expansion data. Estimates for « calculated from

Survivorship values were taken from post-invasion studies and adjusted to account for the temporal length of each stage. Sea otter demographic parameters Table 1

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An old adaptive radiation of forest dung beetles in Madagascar

by Helena Wirta

2008, Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution

Adaptive radiations of mammals have contributed to the exceptionally high levels of biodiversity and endemism in Madagascar. Here we examine the evolutionary history of the endemic dung beetle tribe Helictopleurini (Scarabaeidae) and its... more

Fig. 1. Trapping localities in the sampling of Helictopleurini.

Fig. 3. The majority rule consensus tree of Bayesian inference with posterior probabilities (cut-off value 0.50) for all the tribes. Species belonging to the different tribes are shown with the following symbols: Coprini 0, Onitini @, Oniticellini O, and Onthophagini a. Helictopleurini species have no symbol, with the exception of Heterosyphus sicardi, marked with a cross +.

Fig. 4. The part of the phylogeny in Fig. 3 consisting of Helictopleurini, with clades of species indicated by numbers from | to IV. The food resource use and body size a1 shown for each species. Symbols: primate dung specialists lM, cattle dung beetles a, carrion specialists and/or generalists ©, and species with unknown food resource use? TI black dots show the average body size of each species (scale in mm).

Fig. 2. The size of the past geographical range (calculated for historical sampling localities) plotted against the number of historical sampling localities in species sampled during this study (open circles ©) and in species that have remained un- recorded (black dots @).

Appendix B. List of genomic regions used with their length in basepairs and percentage of conservative, variable, parsimony infor- mative and singleton sites

Species from South Africa have been received from Clarke Scholtz, University of Pretoria and species from Laos from Olivier Montreuil, Paris National Museum of Natural History. GenBank accession numbers for the sequences are provided, and those published in Orsini et al. (2007) are marked with an asterisk.

ppendix A. List of species used in the molecular phylogenetic analysis, with the morphological grouping by Lebis (1960) and Mon- euil (2005b)

Fig. 5. The cumulative number of species through time, illustrating changes in the rate of speciation. The time estimates for the nodes in the phylogeny in Fig. 4 are based on Bayesian inference assuming the mean rate of 0.012 substitutions/site/ MY.

The estimates given here are mean values based on combined data sets. The last line gives the respective data for Helictopleurini. Dates are given in MY. Vertebrate groups that appear to have colonized Madagascar only once, with estimates of the time of divergence from their closest relatives, time of initial radiation (beginning c diversification in Madagascar), and possible subsequent radiations

Fig. 6. Distributional maps of the three widespread cattle dung beetles, with the distribution of a forest species from the same phylogenetic clade for comparison. The cattle dung beetles’ collection localities are shown with the symbol a and forest species’ distribution is shaded, including both localities in our trappings and based on museum records. Helictopleurini is strongly supported as a monophyletic taxon. The closest relatives in our phylogeny are three Oniticellini species, consistent with the taxonomy of Lebis (1960) and the recent The timing estimates broadly correspond to the arrival and radi- ation of the main mammalian groups in Madagascar. Lemurs first arrived 65-60 MY ago (Poux et al., 2005; Yoder and Yang, 2004), and their main radiations took place 43-29 MY ago (Table 1). Car- nivores, rodents, and tenrecs colonized Madagascar in the time interval from 42 to 19 MY (Poux et al., 2005) and radiated 30-

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Carrying capacity, migration, and dispersal in Yellowstone bison

by Michael Coughenour and

2009, Biological Conservation

The conservation of bison in Yellowstone National Park, from near extinction in the late 19th century to a recent high of 5000, has led to long-term societal conflict regarding perceived overabundance, transboundary movements, and... more

Fig. 3. Map depicting place names of current distribution of Yellowstone bison.

Fig. 1. Map depicting Yellowstone National Park and the pre-settlement, mid-20th century, and current distribution of Yellowstone bison.

Fig. 4. (A) Primary components of the SAVANNA model and (B) spatial structure of the model. growth rate is central to interactive plant-herbivore models in which forage intake is a function of forage abundance, and forage abundance is determined by the net outcome of forage production, forage availability, and forage use (Caughley and Lawton, 1975; Noy-Meir, 1975; Caughley, 1979). Plant-herbivore models can be analytically or numerically solved for the population density at which there is equilibrium between the rate of forage production and the rate of forage use. Weather-induced fluctuations in forage production, availability, or mortality produce dynamic equilibria More-complex estimates of food-limited carrying capacity for large herbivores require information on fundamental processes in- volved in linkages between forage production and use, habitat qualities and nutrition, and nutritional status and demographic re- sponses of populations. The feedback of herbivory onto forage

Fig. 2. Time series of counts and removals for bison in Yellowstone National Park during 1901-2008. Counts occurred in the summer of the year indicated, while remov: occurred during the following winter and spring.

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Lethocerus patruelis (Stål, 1855) in Italy: a recent introduction or a natural westward spread? (Hemiptera: Heteroptera: Nepomorpha: Belostomatidae)

by Fabio Cianferoni

2013

The paper provides new records and a critical review of the previous citations of Lethocerus patruelis (Stål, 1855) from Italy. The status of the species in Italy, and whether its presence can be related to a recent introduction or to a... more

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Postglacial range expansion and its genetic imprints in Abies alba (Mill.) — A synthesis from palaeobotanic and genetic data

by Roman Longauer

2009, Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology

range expansion and its genetic imprints in Abies alba (Mill.) -A synthesis from palaeobotanic and genetic data, Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology (2008),

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Contrasting levels of mitochondrial DNA variability between mites (Penthalodidae) and springtails (Hypogastruridae) from the Trans-Antarctic Mountains suggest long- …

by Ian Hogg

2006, Soil Biology and Biochemistry

We carried out a comparative study using mtDNA (COI) for two free-living, endemic, terrestrial invertebrate taxa-the springtail Gomphiocephalus hodgsoni (Hypogastruridae) and the mite Stereotydeus mollis (Penthalodidae) collected from...

Range Expansion

Key research themes

1. How can computational search algorithms be optimized to reduce surplus node generation and improve memory and time efficiency in range-based pathfinding problems?

2. What formal methods allow over-approximation and efficient computation of output ranges in neural networks, and how can they facilitate safety verification in range expansions of network outputs?

3. How do urbanization, land cover, and human population density changes influence large carnivore range expansions in Europe?

4. What behavioral and ecological mechanisms contribute to successful colonization and range expansion in social species and marine top predators?

5. How can range reduction and modular arithmetic techniques be utilized to optimize computation of mathematical functions over expanded argument ranges?

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All papers in Range Expansion