Graduate Degree Program in Ecology, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO, USA.
Department of Bioagricultural Sciences and Pest Management, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO, USA.
Ecol Lett. 2019 Jan;22(1):45-55. doi: 10.1111/ele.13166. Epub 2018 Nov 18.
Dispersal is a key ecological process that is strongly influenced by both phenotype and environment. Here, we show that juvenile environment influences dispersal not only by shaping individual phenotypes, but also by changing the phenotypes of neighbouring conspecifics, which influence how individuals disperse. We used a model system (Tribolium castaneum, red flour beetles) to test how the past environment of dispersing individuals and their neighbours influences how they disperse in their current environment. We found that individuals dispersed especially far when exposed to a poor environment as adults if their phenotype, or even one-third of their neighbours' phenotypes, were shaped by a poor environment as juveniles. Juvenile environment therefore shapes dispersal both directly, by influencing phenotype, as well as indirectly, by influencing the external social environment. Thus, the juvenile environment of even a minority of individuals in a group can influence the dispersal of the entire group.
扩散是一个关键的生态过程，强烈受到表型和环境的影响。在这里，我们表明，幼年环境不仅通过塑造个体表型来影响扩散，还通过改变相邻同种个体的表型来影响个体的扩散方式。我们使用了一个模型系统（Tribolium castaneum，红面粉甲虫）来测试扩散个体及其邻居的过去环境如何影响它们在当前环境中的扩散。我们发现，如果个体在成年时暴露在恶劣的环境中，其表型，甚至三分之一的邻居的表型，都是由幼年时的恶劣环境塑造的，那么个体的扩散距离特别远。因此，幼年环境直接通过影响表型，以及间接地通过影响外部社会环境来塑造扩散。因此，即使是一个群体中少数个体的幼年环境也可以影响整个群体的扩散。
