Abstract
Dispersal is a fundamental biological process that operates at different temporal and spatial scales with consequences for individual fitness, population dynamics, population genetics, and species distributions. Studying this process is particularly challenging when the focus is on microscopic organisms that disperse passively, whilst controlling neither the transience nor the settlement phase of their movement. In this work we propose a comprehensive approach for studying passive dispersal of microscopic invertebrates and demonstrate it using wind and phoretic vectors. The protocol includes the construction of versatile, modifiable dispersal tunnels as well as a theoretical framework quantifying the movement of species via wind or vectors, and a hierarchical Bayesian approach appropriate to the structure of the dispersal data. The tunnels were used to investigate the three stages of dispersal (viz., departure, transience, and settlement) of two species of minute, phytophagous eriophyid mites Aceria tosichella and Abacarus hystrix. The proposed devices are inexpensive and easy to construct from readily sourced materials. Possible modifications enable studies of a wide range of mite species and facilitate manipulation of dispersal factors, thus opening a new important area of ecological study for many heretofore understudied species.
Highlights
Dispersal is a fundamental biological process with consequences for individual fitness, population dynamics, population genetics, and species distributions
We demonstrated the use of our instrumentation and approach on two phytophagous eriophyid mites, which are among the smallest of all arthropods (< 300 μm long): wheat curl mite, Aceria tosichella (WCM hereafter), and cereal rust mite, Abacarus hystrix (CRM hereafter)
Passive dispersal has been poorly studied compared to active movement (Clobert et al 2009; Bonte et al 2012), typically in discrete, separate phases (Bonte et al 2012), hindering comprehensive investigation of this fundamental ecological function
Summary
Dispersal is a fundamental biological process with consequences for individual fitness, population dynamics, population genetics, and species distributions. Studying dispersal is logistically challenging as this process operates at multiple temporal and spatial scales It is a multistage phenomenon, involving departure (initiation of movement), transience (the movement itself) and settlement in a favorable habitat (Clobert et al 2009, 2012). They might travel long distances and colonize new regions (Umina et al 2004) and, in view of climatic changes, may dramatically increase their distributions (Isard and Gage 2001; Travis et al 2013). Investigation of their spread is critical to studies of species dynamics in populations and communities
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