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Distribution of Societies

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Distribution Ecology

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Abstract

So far we have seen how the distribution of environmental resources, mainly food and shelter, determines the distribution of individuals and aggregations. Assuming that individuals use resources based on decision rules that maximise their fitness, it is expected that these exploiters distribute their time between patches of resources within the habitat, in direct relation to the quality of those patches. In this chapter we will see how social behaviour affects the distribution of animals, both favouring a contagious distribution of individuals and, the opposite effect, imposing social spacing. A society is defined operationally as an aggregation of individuals with some kind of social organisation that can include grouping and territoriality. In social groups, individuals benefit by being surrounded by conspecifics, while in territoriality, social spacing promotes a uniform distribution. This chapter links distribution ecology with evolutionary ecology, more specifically with social evolution.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. National Scientific and Technical Research Council & Luján University, Buenos Aires, Argentina

    Marcelo Hernán Cassini

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  1. Marcelo Hernán Cassini
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Cassini, M.H. (2013). Distribution of Societies. In: Distribution Ecology. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-6415-0_4

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