Figure 3. Trade-offs and choices associated with stressors in time and space. (A) When a single stressor, or a combination of multiple stressors that co-occur in time and space, is highly constrained in space (e.g., it affects a small patch of habitat), costs of avoidance in space are low, and, thus, escape in space should be the optimal choice (I). If the stressor duration is very short and its spatial scale is not very local, it should generally be optimal to tolerate the stressor (II), rather than invest in escape in time. However, as stressor duration increases, it can become optimal to escape in time (III), and this choice is more likely to be optimal when the stressor occurs over a greater spatial scale (i.e., the stressor is experienced more by the organism in space). However, when the stressor duration is very long (and it is large-scale), escape in time is impractical (as is escape in space), and so tolerance is the optimal choice (IV). (B) The relative spatial (pink [light] bars) and temporal (green [dark] bars) scales over which an organism and each of two stressors operate determine the set of behavioral choices available to the organism. When the spatial or temporal extent of a stressor overlaps with but is less than that of the organism (i.e., the time or space bar is shorter than that of the organism), the organism can choose to avoid the stressor in space or time, respectively. The optimal choice will depend on the relative costs of escape and tolerance. If, instead, the spatial or temporal extent of either stressor matches or exceeds that of the organism, it is left with fewer behavioral choices. Note: this is a subset of qualitatively distinct scenarios in which an organism can experience effects of multiple stressors that are at least partially correlated in space and time; allowing the pair of stressors to be completely uncorrelated greatly expands the number of possible unique scenarios.