Dispersal, dormancy

and metapopulation
Advanced ecology

Judy Ann B. Begil

MS Biology
 Dispersal
an ecological process that involves the movement of
an individual or multiple individual away from the
population in which they were born to another
location, or population, where they will settle and
reproduce
Three Common Types
of Dispersal

• Natal Dispersal
• Adult Dispersal
• Gamete Dispersal
Why do individuals
disperse?
Proximate vs. Ultimate
causation
Proximate Cause
• Environmental dispersal - individuals disperse in response to
environmental factors, e.g., absence of, or competition for, suitable
resources or parental aggression
• 'Innate' dispersal - individuals are genetically predisposed to disperse
Experimental evidence
for environmental
dispersal:
Columbian Ground squirrels
- aggression by mother
and/or neighboring adult
females appear to cause
dispersal of young males
Possible causes of innate dispersal:

Eastern Screech Owl Belding’s Ground

Squirrels
Inbreeding Avoidance Competition for Mates Competition for Resources

Ultimate factors responsible for dispersal:

the movement or transport
of seeds away from the
parent plant

Plant Dispersal
Non-motile Animal Dispersal
 Dormancy
a period in an organism's life
cycle when growth,
development, and (in animals)
physical activity are temporarily
stopped
Common Poorwill
Hibernation
a mechanism used by
many mammals to reduce
Mouse energy expenditure and
survive food shortage over
the winter

Ground Squirrels Bat

Insects Roe Deer

a predictive strategy that is

predetermined by an animal's genotype

Diapause
 Lung Fish

Snail Garden

Desert Tortoise Crocodile

Aestivation
an example of consequential dormancy
Salamander in response to very hot or dry
conditions
Tuatara

Turtle
Brumation
an example of dormancy in reptiles that is
similar to hibernation
Lizard
 referred to as embryo
dormancy or internal
dormancy and is caused by
endogenous characteristics of
the embryo that
prevent germination

Seed Dormancy
 Metapopulation

• set of local populations occupying

various habitat patches and connected to
one another by the movement of
individuals among them (Ricklefs and
Miller 2000)
Definition of Terms
• Local population: Individuals of a species that live in a habitat
patch. Sometimes used synonymously with subpopulation and
population (Ricklefs and Miller 2000).

• Habitat patch: Areas of habitat that require the resources and conditions
for a population to persist (Ricklefs and Miller 2000).

• Turnover event: When a habitat patch becomes unoccupied through

extinction and is then recolonized by individuals from other local
populations (Ricklefs and Miller 2000).
Definition of Terms

• Metapopulation persistence time: Length of time all populations

persist within a metapopulation until all go extinct (Ricklefs and
Miller 2000).

• Metapopulation structure: Describes the specific characteristics of

natural metapopulations that are explicitly included in a
metapopulation model.