TY  - JOUR
A1  - Lakovic, Milica
A1  - Poethke, Hans-Joachim
A1  - Hovestadt, Thomas
T1  - Dispersal timing: Emigration of insects living in patchy environments
JF  - PLoS One
N2  - Dispersal is a life-history trait affecting dynamics and persistence of populations; it evolves under various known selective pressures. Theoretical studies on dispersal typically assume 'natal dispersal', where individuals emigrate right after birth. But emigration may also occur during a later moment within a reproductive season ('breeding dispersal'). For example, some female butterflies first deposit eggs in their natal patch before migrating to other site(s) to continue egg-laying there. How breeding compared to natal dispersal influences the evolution of dispersal has not been explored. To close this gap we used an individual-based simulation approach to analyze (i) the evolution of timing of breeding dispersal in annual organisms, (ii) its influence on dispersal (compared to natal dispersal). Furthermore, we tested (iii) its performance in direct evolutionary contest with individuals following a natal dispersal strategy. Our results show that evolution should typically result in lower dispersal under breeding dispersal, especially when costs of dispersal are low and population size is small. By distributing offspring evenly across two patches, breeding dispersal allows reducing direct sibling competition in the next generation whereas natal dispersal can only reduce trans-generational kin competition by producing highly dispersive offspring in each generation. The added benefit of breeding dispersal is most prominent in patches with small population sizes. Finally, the evolutionary contests show that a breeding dispersal strategy would universally out-compete natal dispersal.
KW  - animal migration
KW  - statistical disperison
KW  - organismal evolution
KW  - animal sexual behavior
KW  - habitats
KW  - insects
KW  - carrying capacity
KW  - moths and butterflies
Y1  - 2015
U6  - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-126466
VL  - 10
IS  - 7
ER  -