 The limitation of species range: A consequence of searching along resource gradientsJonathan T. Rowell Theoretical Population Biology, 2009, vol. 75, issue 2, 216-227 Abstract: Ecological modelers have long puzzled over the spatial distribution of species. The random walk or diffusive approach to dispersal has yielded important results for biology and mathematics, yet it has been inadequate in explaining all phenomenological features. Ranges can terminate non-smoothly absent a complementary shift in the characteristics of the environment. Also unexplained is the absence of a species from nearby areas of adequate, or even abundant, resources. In this paper, I show how local searching behavior–keyed to a density-dependent fitness–can limit the speed and extent of a species’ spread. In contrast to standard diffusive processes, pseudo-rational movement facilitates the clustering of populations. It also can be used to estimate the speed of an expanding population range, explain expansion stall, and provides a mechanism by which a population can colonize seemingly removed regions — biogeographic islands in a continental framework. Finally, I discuss the effect of resource degradation and different resource impact/utilization curves on the model. Keywords: Population distribution; Taxis; Colonization; Density-dependent fitness; Directed movement; Range expansion (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:thpobi:v:75:y:2009:i:2:p:216-227 DOI: 10.1016/j.tpb.2009.03.001 Access Statistics for this article Theoretical Population Biology is currently edited by Jeremy Van Cleve More articles in Theoretical Population Biology from Elsevier |
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