Abstract
Patterns of dispersal behavior are often driven by the composition and configuration of suitable habitat in a matrix of unsuitable habitat. Interactions between animal behavior and landscapes can therefore influence population dynamics, population and species distributions, population genetic structure, and the evolution of behavior. Spatially explicit individual-based models (IBMs) are ideal tools for exploring the effects of landscape structure on dispersal. We developed an empirically parameterized IBM in the modeling framework SEARCH to simulate dispersal of translocated American martens in Wisconsin. We tested the hypothesis that a time-limited disperser should be willing to settle in lower quality habitat over time. To evaluate model performance, we used a pattern-oriented modeling approach. Our best model matched all empirical dispersal patterns (e.g., dispersal distance) except time to settlement. This model incorporated a required search phase as well as the mechanism for declining habitat selectivity over time, which represents the first demonstration of this hypothesis for a vertebrate species. We suggest that temporal plasticity in habitat selectivity allows individuals to maximize fitness by making a tradeoff between habitat quality and risk of mortality. Our IBM is pragmatic in that it addresses a management need for a species of conservation concern. However, our model is also paradigmatic in that we explicitly tested a theory of dispersal behavior. Linking these 2 approaches to ecological modeling can further the utility of individual-based modeling and provide direction for future theoretical and empirical work on animal behavior.
Highlights
Interactions between landscape-level patterns and animal decisionmaking behaviors can regulate important ecological and evolutionary processes for both species and communities (Lima and Zollner 1996)
We developed an empirically parameterized individual-based models (IBMs) of dispersal behavior of the American marten (Martes americana) in Wisconsin and tested the prediction by Ward (1987) that home range habitat requirements become less stringent throughout the dispersal period
Of the 9 combinations of home range establishment rules we evaluated, the scenario that included the 2-week delay to home range establishment and temporally dynamic habitat selectivity (i.e., Ward’s hypothesis) was consistently the top-ranked model across all methods used to evaluate patternmatching (Table 3)
Summary
Interactions between landscape-level patterns and animal decisionmaking behaviors can regulate important ecological and evolutionary processes for both species and communities (Lima and Zollner 1996). Animals often adjust the speed and/or straightness of their movement as a result of factors such as vegetation type (Roshier et al 2008), disturbance (Anadón et al 2012), and patchiness (Johnson et al 2001). These fine-scale effects may drive major demographic or ecological processes including invasions of non-native species (Holway and Suarez 1999) or spatial and temporal variations in foraging behavior (Johnson et al 2001; Launchbaugh and Howery 2005).
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