Evolution of dispersal and the maintenance of fragmented metapopulations

Finand, Basile; Monnin, Thibaud; Loeuille, Nicolas

doi:10.1101/2022.06.08.495260

Cited by 4 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 60 publications

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“…Indeed, a laboratory experiment shows that M. graminicola colonies founded by a queen plus two or four workers survive more and grow faster than colonies founded by a solitary queen (pers com). This is congruent with several studies that show that in case of polymorphism, the competitive strategy occurs in large patches [23,26,27]. However, seven apterous queens only were found, and in two forests only, hence caution is required.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 91%

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Habitat fragmentation selects for low dispersal in an ant species

Finand

Loeuille

Bocquet

et al. 2023

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Increased habitat fragmentation is one of the major global changes affecting biodiversity. It is characterised by a decrease in habitat availability and by an increase in the isolation of suitable habitat patches. The dispersal capacities of species may evolve in response to increased habitat fragmentation. Spatial heterogeneities and/or costs of dispersal, which are directly linked to habitat fragmentation, tend to select for lower dispersal abilities. We studied the effects of habitat fragmentation on dispersal using an ant species that exhibits a marked dispersal polymorphism. Myrmecina graminicola produces winged queens dispersing by flight over long distances, or apterous queens dispersing on foot over short distances. We sampled queens in 24 forests around Paris and 25 parks within Paris, representing varied levels of habitat fragmentation and habitat size. We identified the queen morphotypes in each environment and used it as a proxy of dispersal. Winged queens predominated in both environments. However, apterous queens were comparatively more common in parks than in forests, suggesting that high fragmentation counterselects dispersal in this species. We argue that this is because dispersing within urban environments is very costly and discuss the factors favouring each queen morph or resulting in their co-occurrence (maintenance of polymorphism).

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 91%

“…In addition, if fragmentation varies over time this temporal variation of the environment can select for higher dispersal as a bet-hedging strategy. These forces select for more dispersal as shown in several theoretical [7,26,[28][29][30][31][32] and empirical works [33,34].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 86%

Habitat fragmentation selects for low dispersal in an ant species

Finand

Loeuille

Bocquet

et al. 2023

Preprint

Self Cite

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show abstract

“…In addition, if fragmentation varies over time this temporal variation of the environment can select for higher dispersal as a bet‐hedging strategy. These forces select for more dispersal as shown in several theoretical (Hamilton and May 1977, Charlesworth and Charlesworth 1987, Gandon 1999, Duputié and Massol 2013, Cote et al 2017, Oldfather et al 2021, Finand et al 2024) and empirical works (Matthysen et al 1995, Tung et al 2018).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 90%

“…A possibility, assuming a tradeoff between competitive ability and dispersal, would be that large favourable habitats select for competitive strategies, and therefore for low dispersal as a by-product (Levins andCulver 1971, Tilman 1994). An experiment shows that M. graminicola colonies founded by a queen plus two or four workers survive and grow better than colonies founded by a solitary queen (Finand et al 2023a). This is congruent with studies that show that in case of polymorphism, the competitive strategy occurs in large patches (Massol et al 2011, Parvinen et al 2020, Finand et al 2024.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Habitat fragmentation through urbanization selects for low dispersal in an ant species

Finand,

Loeuille,

Bocquet

et al. 2023

Oikos

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Increased habitat fragmentation is one of the major global changes affecting biodiversity. It is characterised by a decrease in habitat availability and by the isolation of suitable habitat patches. The dispersal capacities of species may evolve in response to increased habitat fragmentation. Spatial heterogeneities and/or costs of dispersal, which are directly linked to habitat fragmentation, tend to select for lower dispersal abilities. We studied the effects of habitat fragmentation on dispersal in forest and urban contexts, using an ant species that exhibits a marked dispersal polymorphism. Myrmecina graminicola produces winged queens dispersing by flight over long distances, or apterous queens dispersing on foot over short distances. We sampled queens in 24 forests around Paris and in 25 parks within Paris, representing varied levels of habitat fragmentation and habitat size. Winged queens predominated in both environments. However, apterous queens were comparatively more common in parks than in forests, suggesting that high fragmentation and/or urbanization counterselects dispersal in this species. We argue that this is because dispersing within urban environments is very costly for this species, and discuss the factors favouring each queen morph or resulting in their co‐occurrence (maintenance of polymorphism).

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“…Data are available from Github: https://github.com/bfinand/ Model_dispersal_evolution (Finand et al 2023).…”

Section: Author Contributionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evolution of dispersal and the maintenance of fragmented metapopulations

Finand,

Monnin,

Loeuille

2023

Oikos

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Because it affects dispersal risk and modifies competition levels, habitat fragmentation directly constrains dispersal evolution. When dispersal is traded off against competitive ability, increased fragmentation is often expected to select higher dispersal. Such evolutionary effects could favor the maintenance of the metapopulation by fostering spatial rescue effects. Using an evolutionary model, we first investigate how dispersal evolves in a metapopulation when fragmentation and aggregation of this fragmentation are fixed. Our results suggest that high fragmentation indeed selects for dispersal increase, but this effect is largely reduced in aggregated landscapes, to the point of being nonexistent at the highest aggregation levels. Contrasted dispersal strategies coexist at high fragmentation levels and with no or low aggregation. We then simulate time‐varying fragmentation scenarios to investigate the conditions under which evolutionary rescue of the metapopulation happens. Faster evolution of dispersal favors the persistence of the metapopulation, but this effect is very reduced in aggregated landscapes. Overall, our results highlight how the speed of evolution of dispersal and the structuration of the fragmentation will largely constrain metapopulation survival in changing environments.

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Evolution of dispersal and the maintenance of fragmented metapopulations

Cited by 4 publications

References 60 publications

Habitat fragmentation selects for low dispersal in an ant species

Habitat fragmentation selects for low dispersal in an ant species

Habitat fragmentation through urbanization selects for low dispersal in an ant species

Evolution of dispersal and the maintenance of fragmented metapopulations

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