Sociability interacts with temporal environmental variation to spatially structure metapopulations: A fish dispersal simulation in an ephemeral landscape

Abstract

Metapopulation structure emerges from the dispersal of individuals among spatially distinct patches across a low-quality matrix. While dispersing agents are typically modeled as functionally identical with limited, linear and non-directional dispersal, field studies argue for the incorporation of intraspecific trait variation, such as behavioral, into the modeling of dispersal. Individual personality is of growing interest as a trait that affects dispersal metrics yet remains understudied at large, field-relevant spatial scales. Here, we used an individual-based model to investigate the influence of sociability, a personality-type known to be linked to density-dependent dispersal decisions, on a metapopulation at the individual, local and regional scales. As personality dependent dispersal is temporally dependent, we also examined how emergent properties of the metapopulation varied across two dispersal scenarios: long and short dispersal windows. Overall, our results support the growing evidence that individual personalities can significantly structure metapopulations in both space and time, through negative relationships between sociability and dispersal distance and positive relationships between sociability and patch density. However, we also demonstrate the effects of personality are limited by environmental factors. At the larger spatial scales of our model, patch density as a function of distance from source, and proportion of the landscape occupied were more strongly influenced by the dispersal window than by the personality. Using these results, we derive hypotheses to be examined in future empirical research. As the climate continues to shift, and dispersal models are updated to reflect ever changing conditions, these results suggest individual personality types and the personality type by environment interaction should be considered to accurately reflect dispersal and manage valuable metasystems.