Data from: How prospecting for informed dispersal shapes biodiversity patterns in a metacommunity
Data files
Jun 29, 2026 version files 203.57 MB
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Data_MetacommunityModel.zip
203.56 MB
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README.md
10.37 KB
Abstract
Aim
Prospecting for potential dispersal destinations is a key aspect of making informed dispersal decisions. The aim of our study is to investigate the role of prospecting in mediating coexistence or competitive exclusion in a metacommunity, thereby altering the dispersal-diversity relationship.
Methods
An individual-based model (IBM) was developed to simulate a small mammal metacommunity, incorporating local resource competition and regional dispersal. The model included three scenarios for the distribution of prospecting intensity (measured as the number of patches prospected) across the metacommunity: uniform prospecting intensity, interspecific differences in prospecting intensity, and intraspecific differences in prospecting intensity. The study further considered costs associated with prospecting and dispersal, including mortality risk during prospecting and integration costs in the new patch.
Results
Informed settlement significantly influenced the relationship between dispersal rate and metacommunity diversity. Low prospecting effort led to a steady increase in diversity with higher dispersal rates, while higher prospecting effort resulted in a hump-shaped relationship. High prospecting intensity led to rapid colonization of high-quality patches, increasing competition and reducing establishment success, especially for species with high resource demands. Introducing dispersal costs, particularly integration costs, reduced metacommunity diversity, but increased prospecting effort partially mitigated this loss. Species-specific prospecting effort, correlated with body mass, resulted in a hump-shaped relationship between dispersal rate and diversity, highlighting the role of prospecting for the competition-colonization trade-off. In contrast, individual variation in prospecting behaviour led to the evolution of low prospecting effort and could maintain diverse communities even under high dispersal rates and associated prospecting costs.
Main conclusions
The study demonstrates that informed dispersal, specifically prospecting intensity, plays a crucial role in shaping metacommunity diversity by mediating competitive species interactions.
https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.zkh1893kt
The data files within the Data_MetacommunityModel.zip have been generated with the individual-based metacommunity model. The source code for the model is provided at zenodo and can be found in this repository. The model is accompanied by a README to provide background on setup and how to run a simulation, including the diverse options the model can take as an input. A detailed description of the model and its functionalities is given in the ODD (Overview, Design Concepts and Details) protocol, which is also provided. Any NA represents missing data.
This repository provides the source code for the implementation of an individual-based metacommunity model, as well as the input file used to derive our results. The dataset was simulated using the individual-based metacommunity model (software downloadable from zenodo) and is provided as CSV files. Their visualization, as in the paper, is included as R scripts.
Description of the data and file structure
The simulated data comes in 5 separate data files. Each simulation is initialized with a randomly generated seed to facilitate pseudo-randomness. The seed is unique for each simulation and therefore also functions as a unique ID. It is used to combine the several output files for each simulation.
| Column Name: | Definition: |
|---|---|
| seed | Unique seed for each simulation. |
| run | Run defines the replication for each combination of variables. |
| dispersal | Overall dispersal propensity in the metacommunity |
| extinction | Daily patch extinction probability |
| patchNumber | Number of patches in the metacommunity |
| patchSize | Size of all patches defined by their edge length measured in number of cells |
| resource | Resource availability of a single habitat cell [g dry mass/day] |
| fragmentation | Defining the local distribution of habitat in each patch |
| dispersalStage | Categorizing the age at dispersal, either "adult" or "juvenile" |
| dispersalSyndrome | Categorizing the phenotype-dependent dispersal syndrome, "random", "larger" or "smaller" |
| mortality | Prospecting mortality probability given per prospected patch |
| costIntegration | Categorizing the costs of integration for dispersing individuals, "true" or "false" |
| prospecting | Categorizing differences in prospecting intensity between individuals, "uniform", "random individual differences", "inherited individual differences" or "species differences" |
| patches | Prospecting intensity given as the number of prospected patches (only valid for a uniform prospecting intensity distribution) |
| Column Name: | Definition: |
|---|---|
| seed | Unique seed for each simulation |
| Day | Reports the day of the simulation |
| Richness | Number of species in the community |
| ENS | Effective number of species in the community, calculated as the exponential of the Shannon diversity index of the community |
| ConsumerDensity | Mean number of individuals per patch |
| Consumer_CoV | Coefficient of variation in individual numbers between patches |
| ResourceDensity | Mean resource availability per patch |
| Resource_CoV | Coefficient of variation in resource availability between patches |
| Consumption | Mean resource consumption in a patch |
| Consumption_CoV | Coefficient of variation in resource consumption between patches |
| Exploration | Average prospecting intensity in the whole community (only valid for scenarios of individual differences) |
| Disperser | Daily number of dispersers in the metacommunity |
| dispersalSuccess | Dispersal success rates of dispersers to establish successfully in their new settlement patch |
| prospectingDead | Number of individuals that died during prospecting |
| Column Name: | Definition: |
|---|---|
| seed | Unique seed for each simulation. |
| Species | Species identity is reported as a species ID going from 0 to 9; the associated species' mean body mass ranges from 10 to 100g |
| Abundance | Average daily abundance of each species |
| Reproduction | Number of offspring per female |
| JuvenileSuccess | Fraction of offspring that can successfully establish their own home range after reaching independence |
| DispersalSuccess | Dispersal success rates of dispersers to establish successfully in their new settlement patch |
| Exploration | Average number of prospected patches per species |
| Column Name: | Definition: |
|---|---|
| seed | Unique seed for each simulation. |
| Coviability | Time until critical diversity loss (half the species are lost from the metacommunity) |
| ReDivSpecies | Reassembly time measured as the time until the extinct patch recovers its species richness to the average level of surrounding patches |
| ReDivENS | Reassembly time measured as the time until the extinct patch recovers its effective number of species to the average level of surrounding patches. |
| Recolonization | Time until average consumer densities have been reestablished in a disturbed patch |
| Column Name: | Definition: |
|---|---|
| seed | Unique seed for each simulation |
| ID | Unique patch ID of the extinct patch |
| Extinction | Day of extinction |
| Day | Time since extinction |
| Consumer | Total number of individuals in the extinct patch |
| Resource | Resource availability in the extinct patch (after the foraging activities) |
| Consumption | Consumed resource fraction by the consumer |
| Arrival | Number of arriving dispersers |
| DeadDisperser | Number of dispersers that are not successful in establishing a home range in the patch |
| Starvation | Number of dead individuals due to starvation |
Code/Software
The data files do not require specific software. The model can be compiled using a C++ compiler; the setup and usage of the model are explained in the respective README. Required are a C++ compiler (e.g., clang from Xcode) and Qt (https://www.qt.io/download-qt-installer (opens in new window)), min. version 4.