Asymmetric dispersal and evolutional selection in two-patch system

Abstract

Biological organisms leave their habitat when the environment becomes harsh. The essence of a biological dispersal is not in the rate, but in the capability to adjust to the environmental changes. In nature, conditional asymmetric dispersal strategies appear due to the spatial and temporal heterogeneity in the environment. Authors show that such a dispersal strategy is evolutionary selected in the context two-patch problem of Lotka-Volterra competition model. They conclude that, if a conditional asymmetric dispersal strategy is taken, the dispersal is not necessarily disadvantageous even for the case that there is no temporal fluctuation of environment at all.