Integrating across Life‐History Stages: Consequences of Natal Habitat Effects on Dispersal

Michael F. Benard, Shannon J. McCauley
2008 American Naturalist  
Ecological and evolutionary processes are affected by forces acting at both local and regional scales, yet our understanding of how these scales interact has remained limited. These processes are fundamentally linked through individuals that develop as juve niles in one environment and then either remain in the natal habitat or disperse to new environments. Empirical studies in a diverse range of organisms have demonstrated that the conditions experienced in the natal habitat can have profound
more » ... ffects on the adult phenotype. This environmentally induced phenotypic variation can in turn affect the probability that an individual will disperse to a new environment and the ecological and evolutionary impact of that individual in the new environment. We synthesize the literature on this process and propose a framework for exploring the linkage between local devel opmental environment and dispersal. We then discuss the ecological and evolutionary implications of dispersal asymmetries generated by the effects of natal habitat conditions on individual phenotypes. Our review indicates that the influence of natal habitat conditions on adult phenotypes may be a highly general mechanism affecting the flow of individuals between populations. The wealth of information already gathered on how local conditions affect adult phenotype can and should be integrated into the study of dispersal as a critical force in ecology and evolution. Amarasekare, P. 2004. The role of density-dependent dispersal in source-sink dynamics. Journal of Theoretical Biology 226:159-168.
doi:10.1086/587072 pmid:18419566 fatcat:fb5nzj36vnghlhqkttpixtwmli