Abstract
Dispersal is a fundamental ecological process that can be affected by population density, yet studies report contrasting effects of density on propensity to disperse. In addition, the relationship between dispersal and density is seldom examined using densities measured at different spatial scales or over extensive time series. We used 51 years of trapping data to examine how dispersal by wild deer mice (Peromyscus maniculatus) was affected by changes in both local and regional population densities. We examined these patterns over both the entire time series and also in 10-year shifting windows to determine whether the nature and strength of the relationship changed through time. Probability of dispersal decreased with increased local and regional population density, and the negative effect of local density on dispersal was more pronounced in years with low regional densities. In addition, the strength of negative density-dependent dispersal changed through time, ranging from very strong in some decades to absent in other periods of the study. Finally, while females were less likely to disperse, female dispersal was more density-dependent than male dispersal. Our study shows that the relationship between density and dispersal is not temporally static and that investigations of density-dependent dispersal should consider both local and regional population densities.
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Acknowledgements
We would like to acknowledge countless individuals who collected these data. Thank you to the Algonquin Wildlife Research Station for logistical support. This work was supported through funding from the National Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada and the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources. We dedicate this work to the memory of our colleague Dr. Leslie Rye who said it best: “I can’t believe I am getting paid to work in Algonquin!”
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STDB, KC and AGM devised the main ideas of this work. STDB wrote the initial draft of the manuscript; all authors contributed substantially to its revision. STDB completed the analysis. JBF, EAF, RJB, STDB, and AGM all contributed to the collection and maintenance of the dataset.
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Communicated by Frauke Ecke.
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Denomme-Brown, S.T., Cottenie, K., Falls, J.B. et al. Variation in space and time: a long-term examination of density-dependent dispersal in a woodland rodent. Oecologia 193, 903–912 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-020-04728-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-020-04728-3