Evolutionary dynamics of dispersal and local adaptation in multi-resource landscapes

Dispersal can enable access to resources in new locations. Consequently, traits that govern dispersal probability and dispersal distance may impact an individual’s ability to acquire resources. However, spatial variation in the quality or quantity of resources may mediate potential adaptive benefits of novel dispersal traits. Ecological traits (i.e., those that determine how an individual processes resources) will also, by definition, affect how an individual interacts with the resource landscape. In a spatially heterogeneous environment, this creates potential for evolutionary feedbacks between dispersal-related traits and ecological traits. For example, dispersal may introduce individuals to novel resources, at which point there may be selection for local adaptation of ecological traits. Conversely, an individual’s ability to utilize different resource types may determine how dispersal impacts fitness. Here, we develop an individual-based model to investigate co-evolution of dispersal and ecological traits in a landscape where multiple resources vary independently across space. We find that: (1) resource specialists can emerge and tend to evolve dispersal strategies suited to the structure of their preferred resource type and (2) generalists, when they emerge, tend to possess intermediate dispersal strategies. Lastly, we note that the effect of dispersal on the evolution of the ecological trait is weaker than vice versa and, as a result, appreciable heterogeneity in the abundance of resources across a landscape will likely obscure a signal of co-evolution.