The evolution of dispersal of reproducing competitive individuals

Dispersal is a life-history trait that influences the dynamics and persistence of populations, the distribution and abundance of species, and community structure. To understand dispersal, we need to measure its spatial patterns, to explore the mechanisms that generate them, and to examine their consequences. In this work we address attention to the interplay between dispersal and interactions among particles. We adopt a model of population dynamics of competing particles in which considers reproducing particles with birth and death rates depending of the number of other individuals in the neighbourhood (Hernández-García and Cristóbal Lopez 2004). We analysed spatial and temporal variability in terms of aggregated individuals (clustering) and change competing parameters to see how this affects movement that evolves. In general population density diminishes when increasing diffusion parameter, spatial variability favours slow disperses and high stochastic fluctuations favours to fast dispersers. The results corroborate with other studies, however in this case the spatial heterogeneity is not imposed on the model but arises from the dynamics of competitive particles. Important factors such as spatial and temporal variability, which signal a measure of favourable and/or unfavourable environments for the establishment of fast or slow walkers, arise from the own dynamics of how the particles will be organized as they born, die and spread.