To stay or to go: resource diversity alters the dispersal behavior of sympatric cryptic marine nematodes.

ABSTRACT: Animals can use specific environmental cues to make informed decisions about whether and where to disperse. Patch conditions are known to affect the dispersal behavior of animals, but empirical studies investigating the impact of resource diversity on the dispersal of closely related species are largely lacking. In this study, we investigated how food diversity affects the dispersal behavior of three co-occurring cryptic species of the marine bacterivorous nematode complex Litoditis marina (Pm I, Pm III and Pm IV). Using microcosms composed of a local patch (inoculation plate), a connection tube, and a distant patch (dispersal plate), we examined nematode dispersal patterns with bacteria serving as the food source. Food treatments included low-, medium-, and high-diversity bacterial

SUBMITTER: Guden RM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11737338 | biostudies-literature | 2025

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature