Invasion fitness and adaptive dynamics in spatial population models

Abstract

Abstract Disentangling proximate and ultimate factors of dispersal and assessing their relative effects requires an appropriate measure of fitness. Yet there have been few theoretical attempts to define fitness coherently from demographic ‘first principles’, when space-related traits such as dispersal are adaptive. In this chapter, we present the framework of adaptive dynamics and argue that invasion fitness is a robust concept accounting for ecological processes that operate at the individual level.