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Understanding the evolution of dispersal is essential for understanding and predicting the dynamics of natural populations. Two main factors are known to influence dispersal evolution: spatio-temporal variation in the environment and relatedness between individuals. However, the relation between these factors is still poorly understood, and they are usually treated separately. In this article, I present a theoretical framework that contains and connects effects of both environmental variation and relatedness, and reproduces and extends their known features. Spatial habitat variation selects for balanced dispersal strategies, whereby the population is kept at an ideal free distribution. Within this class of dispersal strategies, I explain how increased dispersal is promoted by perturbations to the dispersal type frequencies. An explicit formula shows the magnitude of the selective advantage of increased dispersal in terms of the spatial variability in the frequencies of the different dispersal strategies present. These variances are capable of capturing various sources of stochasticity and hence establish a common scale for their effects on the evolution of dispersal. The results furthermore indicate an alternative approach to identifying effects of relatedness on dispersal evolution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a recent paper, J. M. McNamara and S. R. Dall identified novel relationships between (1) the abundance of a species in different environments, (2) the temporal properties of environmental change, and (3) selection for or against dispersal. Here, the mathematics underlying these relationships in their two-environment model are investigated for arbitrary numbers of environments. A population statistic, the fitness-abundance covariance, is introduced, which quantifies the property they describe. It is the covariance between growth rates and the excess abundance of the population over what it would be without heterogeneous growth rates. Its value depends on the phase in the life cycle when the population is censused, and the pre-dispersal and post-dispersal values differ as an example of Fisher's Fundamental Theorem. The fitness-abundance covariance is shown to involve the Reduction Principle from the population genetics literature on the evolution of genetic systems and migration, which is reviewed. Conditions that produce selection for increased unconditional dispersal are new instances of the Principle of Partial Control proposed to explain departures from reduction in the evolution of modifier genes. According to this principle, variation that only partially controls the processes that transform the transmitted information of organisms may be selected to increase the rates of these processes. The model's behavior is shown to depend on the harmonic mean of the durations of the environments, causal connection between successive environments, and the eigenvalues of the environmental change matrix. Analysis of the adaptive landscape in the model shows that the evolution of conditional dispersal is very sensitive to the spectrum of phenotypic variation produced by the population, and suggests that empirical study of a particular species will require an evaluation of its variational properties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

1. We investigated the causes of natal dispersal in four Spanish areas where 35 breeding groups of the polygynous great bustard Otis tarda were monitored intensively. A total of 392 juveniles were radio-tracked between 1991 and 2006 by ground and via aeroplane to avoid potential biases derived from the non-detection of long-distance dispersers. 2. We explored 10 explanatory variables that were related to individual phenotypic features, habitat and conspecific traits in terms of group size and breeding performance, and spatial distribution of available breeding groups. Probability of group change and natal dispersal distances were investigated separately through multifactorial analyses. 3. Natal dispersal occurred in 47·8% of the birds and median natal dispersal distance of dispersers was 18·1 km (range 4·97–178·42 km). Sex largely determined the dispersal probability, with 75·6% of males being dispersers and 80·0% of females being philopatric, in contrast to the general pattern of female-biased dispersal found in most avian species. 4. Both the frequency of natal dispersal and dispersal distances were affected by the spatial distribution of breeding groups. More isolated groups showed a higher proportion of philopatric individuals, the effect being more evident in males than in females. This implies a reduction in gene flow in fragmented populations, as most genetic exchange is achieved through male dispersal. Additionally, dispersers hatched in more isolated groups tended to exhibit longer dispersal distances, which increases the associated energetic costs and mortality risks. 5. The dispersal decision was influenced by the number of conspecifics in the natal group. The individual probability of natal dispersal was related inversely to the size of the natal group, which supports the balanced dispersal model and the conspecific attraction hypothesis. 6. Overall, our results provide a good example of phenotypic plasticity and reinforce the current view that dispersal is an evolutionary complex trait conditioned by the interaction of individual, social and environmental causes that vary between individuals and populations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]