Dispersal and phenotypic plasticity
Dispersal and phenotypic plasticity
Virtually all species disperse to some extent. Yet, the magnitude of the dispersal rate and the scale of the environment often predispose organisms’ developmental strategies. That is whether species will evolve phenotypic plasticity, or selection would favour constitutive local adaption. Dispersal is a common feature among, e.g., emigrating birds with individuals visiting the same locality across years, while a more stochastic dispersal pattern is prevalent among many marine organisms with a planktonic dispersal phase and also among wind-pollinated plants. These different dispersal strategies infer numerous challenges for organisms in order to achieve a high adaptive value across environments as the fitness optimum change temporally or spatially. In essence, this chapter will discuss how various dispersal strategies constrain and or enable phenotypic evolution, and how developmental flexibility can facilitate migration by buffering against negative selection and subsequently drive population divergence.
Keywords: phenotypic plasticity, behaviour, natural selection, scales, local adaptation, speciation, invasive species, gene flow, costs
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