Immigration enhances fast growth of a newly established source population

Abstract. Immigration and local recruitment play a central role in determining the growth rate of breeding populations. Unraveling these processes in newly established pop- ulations is of great importance to increase our understanding of how species change their distributions in response to global change. We studied the largest colony of glossy ibis (Plegadis falcinellus) in Western Europe (established in 1996 in Doñana, SW-Spain) by using capture-recapture methods, count estimates, and projection matrix modeling to: (1) test the effect of resource availability and competition on local recruitment dynamics, (2) investigate the contribution of local recruitment vs. immigration on population growth, and (3) assess the role of this population in source/sink dynamics. We found different dynamics before and after the establishment of satellite colonies in Doñana in 2004. Between 1996 and 2003, the population increased rapidly, fueled by immigrants (≈ 58 breeding females/ yr). Between 2003 and 2007, however, both colony size increase and immigration were negligible. Immigration played a major role in colony growth, but simultaneously this colony was a source population driving expansion of the species range as suggested by (1) absolute and relative estimates of the observed growth rate relative to that predicted by self-recruitment, and (2) numerous observations of Doñana-born individuals breeding elsewhere. Local recruitment, which was particularly high for first-year individuals (probability > 0.8 for the early study years), was not directly related to resource availability or previous-year breeding success. Local recruitment decreased rapidly at a threshold population size, however, when other satellite colonies became established at Dofiana. Our study suggests that even when recruitment at an early age and high productivity are observed, immigration can still play a pivotal role in promoting the fast growth of new populations at the edge of a species range, at least until density-dependent effects arise. This process can be so fast that within a few years a new population can itself become a source population, further driving range expansion of the species.