Can settlement in natal-like habitat explain maladaptive habitat selection?

Can settlement in natal-like habitat explain maladaptive habitat selection?

The study of habitat selection has long been influenced by the ideal free model, which maintains that young adults settle in habitat according to its inherent quality and the density of conspecifics within it. The model has gained support in recent years from the finding that conspecifics produce cues inadvertently that help prebreeders locate good habitat. Yet abundant evidence shows that anim...

Natal social environment influences habitat selection later in life

Habitat selection at settlement endures in recruitment time series

Metamorphosis from a pelagic to a benthic stage is a critical transition in the life cycle of sessile marine invertebrates. The barnacle Semibalanus balanoides attaches permanently during settlement, and once attached, its gross location in the adult habitat is fixed. The partitioning of benthic habitat among barnacles in a recruit cohort is often mediated by settlement timing because early set...

Effects of an attractive sink leading into maladaptive habitat selection.

Habitat sinks can attract dispersing animals if high mortality or breeding failure are difficult to detect (e.g., when due to human hunting or pollution). Using a simple deterministic model, we explore the dynamics of such source-sink systems considering three scenarios: an avoided sink, no habitat preference, and an attractive sink. In the second two scenarios, there is a threshold proportion ...

Reef fishes can recognize bleached habitat during settlement: sea anemone bleaching alters anemonefish host selection.

Understanding how bleaching impacts the settlement of symbiotic habitat specialists and whether there is flexibility in settlement choices with regard to habitat quality is essential given our changing climate. We used five anemonefishes (Amphiprion clarkii, Amphiprion latezonatus, Amphiprion ocellaris, Amphiprion percula and Premnas biaculeatus) and three host sea anemones (Entacmaea quadricol...