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Habitat matching and spatial heterogeneity of phenotypes: implications for metapopulation and metacommunity functioning

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Abstract

Spatial heterogeneity in the distribution of phenotypes among populations is of major importance for species evolution and ecosystem functioning. Dispersal has long been assumed to homogenise populations in structured landscapes by generating maladapted gene flows, making spatial heterogeneity of phenotypes traditionally considered resulting from local adaptation or plasticity. However, there is accumulating evidence that individuals, instead of dispersing randomly in the landscapes, adjust their dispersal decisions according to their phenotype and the environmental conditions. Specifically, individuals might move in the landscape to find and settle in the environmental conditions that best match their phenotype, therefore maximizing their fitness, a hypothesis named habitat matching. Although habitat matching and associated non-random gene flows can produce spatial phenotypic heterogeneity, their potential consequences for metapopulation and metacommunity functioning are still poorly understood. Here, we discuss evidence for intra and interspecific drivers of habitat matching, and highlight the potential consequences of this process for metapopulation and metacommunity functioning. We conclude that habitat matching might deeply affect the eco-evolutionary dynamics of meta-systems, pointing out the need for further empirical and theoretical research on its incidence and implications for species and communities evolution under environmental changes.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the ANR INDHET to SJ and JCl, FNRS-F.S.R. and Catholic University of Louvain to DL, ANR-12-JSV7-0004-01 to JCo and a Ph.D. scholarship from MESR (Ministère de l’Enseignement Supérieur et de la Recherche) to EB. JCo was supported by an ANR-12-JSV7-0004-01 and by the ERA-Net BiodivERsA, with the national funder ONEMA, part of the 2012–2013 BiodivERsA call for research proposals. This work is part of the ‘Laboratoire d’Excellence (LABEX)’ entitled TULIP (ANR-10-LABX-41), and the National Infrastructure AnaEE-France.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Station d’Ecologie Expérimentale du CNRS à Moulis, USR CNRS 2936, 2 route du CNRS, 09200, Moulis, France

    Staffan Jacob, Elvire Bestion & Jean Clobert

  2. Biodiversity Research Centre, Earth and Life Institute, Université Catholique de Louvain, Croix du Sud 4, L7-07-04, 1348, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium

    Delphine Legrand

  3. Laboratoire Evolution and Diversité Biologique, UMR 5174, Université Paul Sabatier Toulouse III, 31062, Toulouse, France

    Julien Cote

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  1. Staffan Jacob
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  2. Elvire Bestion
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  4. Jean Clobert
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  5. Julien Cote
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Correspondence to Staffan Jacob.

Glossary

Context-dependent dispersal

Correlations between dispersal behaviour at each stage and ecological conditions. These conditions include abiotic conditions (e.g. temperature, humidity, soil composition), population/social contexts (e.g. density, relatedness, sex-ratio) and interspecific interactions/community composition (e.g. predation risk, parasitism, prey abundance).

Dispersal syndrome

A suite of morphological, behavioural, physiological and life-history traits characterizing dispersers in comparison to residents. These suites result from the interaction between phenotype- and context-dependencies of dispersal and can thus vary with ecological contexts of dispersal.

Habitat matching

Dispersal decisions consisting in moving through the landscape in order to find and settle in the environmental context that best match their phenotype, providing individuals with higher performances than in other habitats. This process results in a match between individual phenotype and habitat ecological conditions. Habitat matching therefore consists in phenotype- and context-dependent dispersal decisions at emigration and/or immigration.

Local adaptation

Increase of individual’s performance driven by genetic adaptation to the local ecological context over generations.

Phenotype-dependent dispersal

Correlations between dispersal behaviour at each stage and individual morphological, behavioural, physiological and life-history traits. These correlations can be genetically determined or can vary with ecological conditions, including conditions involved in context-dependent dispersal.

Phenotypic plasticity

Ability of a given genotype to produce different alternative phenotypes according to the environmental conditions.

Metacommunity

A group of communities that are spatially separated and connected by the dispersal of one or several species. Metacommunity dynamics result from complex interactions between extinctions and re-colonizations for each species constituting communities.

Metapopulation

A group of populations that are spatially separated and connected by dispersal. Metapopulation dynamics result from extinctions and re-colonization events. Metapopulations often result from landscape fragmentation where habitat patches are being surrounded by unsuitable matrix and become more isolated from each other.

Random and non-random dispersal

Random dispersal is active or passive movement from a natal/breeding site to another breeding site regardless of their ecological characteristics and phenotypic attributes of candidate dispersers. Non-random dispersal occurs when dispersal behaviour, at least for one stage (departure, transience, settlement), depends on sites’ ecological condition (context-dependent dispersal) or on individual phenotype (phenotype-dependent dispersal).

Spatial heterogeneity

Spatial structure in the distribution of ecological conditions (i.e. spatial environmental heterogeneity) or of phenotypic traits (i.e. spatial phenotypic heterogeneity) in a landscape.

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Jacob, S., Bestion, E., Legrand, D. et al. Habitat matching and spatial heterogeneity of phenotypes: implications for metapopulation and metacommunity functioning. Evol Ecol 29, 851–871 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10682-015-9776-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10682-015-9776-5

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