Affiliation:
1. Department of Biology, University of Tromsø, N-9037 Tromsø, Norway
2. Department of Forestry and Wildlife Management, Hedmark University College, N-2480 Koppang, Norway
Abstract
The synchronization of the dynamics of spatially subdivided populations is of both fundamental and applied interest in population biology. Based on theoretical studies, dispersal movements have been inferred to be one of the most general causes of population synchrony, yet no empirical study has mapped distance-dependent estimates of movement rates on the actual pattern of synchrony in species that are known to exhibit population synchrony. Northern vole and lemming species are particularly well-known for their spatially synchronized population dynamics. Here, we use results from an experimental study to demonstrate that tundra vole dispersal movements did not act to synchronize population dynamics in fragmented habitats. In contrast to the constant dispersal rate assumed in earlier theoretical studies, the tundra vole, and many other species, exhibit negative density-dependent dispersal. Simulations of a simple mathematical model, parametrized on the basis of our experimental data, verify the empirical results, namely that the observed negative density-dependent dispersal did not have a significant synchronizing effect.
Subject
General Agricultural and Biological Sciences,General Environmental Science,General Immunology and Microbiology,General Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology,General Medicine
Cited by
105 articles.
订阅此论文施引文献
订阅此论文施引文献,注册后可以免费订阅5篇论文的施引文献,订阅后可以查看论文全部施引文献