Matching Habitat Choice and the Evolution of a Species' Range
by Farshad Shirani and Judith R Miller
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It is reasonable to think that when individuals of a species detect habitat favorable for their characteristics, they move towards it—a phenomenon called matching habitat choice (MHC). However, this behavior is relatively rare in nature, and a major goal of the present research is to understand why this is so. By developing a model of a species’ range evolution using PDEs and numerically solving the equations, we found that MHC is likely to be prevalent only in environments whose conditions change dramatically over a short distance relative to the movement ability of the organism. Further, when MHC does occur, it increases the spread rate of an invasive species and enhances the species’ chance of survival in rapidly changing environments.
Matching Habitat Choice and the Evolution of a Species' Range: A Graphical Abstract.
