Can attraction to and competition for high-quality habitats shape breeding propensity?

ABSTRACT: In many animal species, sexually mature individuals may skip breeding opportunities despite a likely negative impact on fitness. In spatio-temporally heterogeneous environments, habitat selection theory predicts that individuals select habitats where fitness prospects are maximized. Individuals are attracted to high-quality habitat patches where they compete for high-quality breeding sites. Since failures in contests to secure a site may prevent individuals from breeding, we hypothesized that attraction to and competition for high-quality habitats could shape breeding propensity. Under this hypothesis, we predicted the two following associations between breeding propensity and two key population features. (1) When mean habitat quality in the population increases in multiple patches such th

SUBMITTER: Acker P 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9314844 | biostudies-literature | 2022 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature