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Following the Dynamics of Structural Variants in Experimentally Evolved Populations
Published on: February 3, 2023
The evolution of patch selection in stochastic environments
1Department of Evolution and Ecology and the Center for Population Biology, University of California, Davis, CA 95616, USA. sschreiber@ucdavis.edu
The American Naturalist
|June 8, 2012
Summary
Environmental uncertainty alters habitat patch selection, moving away from the ideal free distribution (IFD) predictions. Evolutionarily stable strategies may lead to occupying sink patches and unequal population growth rates.
Area of Science:
- Ecology
- Evolutionary Biology
- Theoretical Ecology
Background:
- The ideal free distribution (IFD) is a null model for habitat patch selection in heterogeneous environments.
- IFD assumes perfect environmental knowledge and free dispersal, predicting zero growth rates in occupied patches and occupancy proportional to carrying capacity.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate how environmental uncertainty and spatial heterogeneity affect habitat patch selection strategies.
- To analyze the evolutionary stability of fixed patch-selection strategies under fluctuating environmental conditions.
Main Methods:
- Evolutionary stability analysis of fixed patch-selection strategies.
- Modeling spatial correlations in environmental fluctuations.
- Analyzing the impact of increasing environmental variation and habitat degradation.
Main Results:
- Environmental uncertainty disrupts IFD predictions, leading to occupied sink patches and unequal, negative local growth rates.
- Individuals may prefer higher-quality patches less than predicted by carrying capacity.
- Increasing environmental variation can lead to range expansion, coupled sink populations, and regional extinction.
- Habitat degradation initially causes range contraction, potentially followed by coupled sink populations before extinction.
Conclusions:
- Environmental uncertainty and spatial heterogeneity significantly alter the evolution of habitat selection.
- The IFD model's assumptions are violated under realistic stochastic conditions.
- Understanding these dynamics is crucial for predicting population persistence and extinction in changing environments.
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