Colonisation in social species: the importance of breeding experience for dispersal in overcoming information barriers.

ABSTRACT: Studying colonisation is crucial to understand metapopulations, evolutionary ecology and species resilience to global change. Unfortunately, few empirical data are available because field monitoring that includes empty patches at large spatiotemporal scales is required. We examine the colonisation dynamics of a long-lived seabird over 34 years in the western Mediterranean by comparing population and individual data from both source colony and the newly-formed colonies. Since social information is not available, we hypothesize that colonisation should follow particular dispersal dynamics and personal information must be crucial in decision making. We test if adverse breeding conditions trigger colonisation events, if personal information plays a role in colonisation and if colonisers experi

SUBMITTER: Payo-Payo A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5314353 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature