Abstract
The idea that populations are spatially structured has become a very
powerful concept in ecology, raising interest in many research areas.
However, despite dispersal being a core component of the concept, it
typically does not consider the movement behavior underlying any
dispersal. Using individual-based simulations in continuous space, we
investigate the emergence of a spatially structured population in
landscapes with spatially heterogeneous resource distribution and with
organisms following simple area-concentrated search (ACS); individuals
do not, however, perceive or respond to any habitat attributes per se
but only to their foraging success. We investigated effects of different
resource clustering pattern in landscapes (single large cluster vs. many
small clusters) and different resource density on spatially structure of
populations and movement between resource clusters of individuals. As
results, we found that foraging success increased with increasing
resource density and decreasing number of resource clusters. In a wide
parameter space, the system exhibited attributes of a spatially
structured populations with individuals concentrated in areas of high
resource density, searching within areas of resources, and ‘dispersing’
in straight line between resource patches. ‘Emigration’ was more likely
from patches that were small or of low quality (low resource density),
but we observed an interaction effect between these two parameters. With
the ACS implemented, individuals tended to move deeper into a resource
cluster in scenarios with moderate resource density than in scenarios
with high resource density. ‘Looping’ from patches was more likely if
patches were large and of high quality. Our simulations demonstrate that
spatial structure in populations may emerge if critical resources are
heterogeneously distributed and if individuals follow simple movement
rules (such as ACS). Neither the perception of habitat nor an explicit
decision to emigrate from a patch on the side of acting individuals are
necessary for the emergence of spatial structure.