PARENT SESSION
Poster Session # 1: Ecological Theory and Evolutionary Ecology.
Monday, August 4 Presentation from 5:00 PM to 6:30 PM. SITCC Exhibit Hall B.
Evolution of dispersal distance in a predator-prey system: Living on the edge of criticality.
Smith, Curtis*,1, Wilson, William1, 1 Duke University, Durham, North Carolina
ABSTRACT- This study explores the dynamics associated with a spatial predator-prey model in which the dispersal distance of the predator is allowed to evolve from an initial value significantly greater than the dispersal distance of the prey. Spatial instabilities quickly lead to a patchy landscape, soon followed by a steady decrease in mean predator dispersal distance to values just greater than the dispersal distance of the prey. Depending on mutation rate and the size of the landscape, the predator persists on the edge of criticality as a metapopulation. Local extinctions of the predator are followed by the unimpeded growth of prey patches until the recolonization of predators results in the large patch either shrinking in size or splitting into numerous smaller patches. The growth and subsequent splitting of patches provides a potential mechanism for the recolonization of areas long void of predators, while the occasional merging of large patches prior to recolonization allows for gene flow between prey populations long separated.
Key words: evolution to criticality, individual-based model, dispersal distance, metapopulation