Integrating movement ecology with biodiversity research - exploring new avenues to address spatiotemporal biodiversity dynamics

Abstract

Movement of organisms is one of the key mechanisms shaping biodiversity, e.g. the distribution of genes, individuals and species in space and time. Recent technological and conceptual advances have improved our ability to assess the causes and consequences of individual movement, and led to the emergence of the new field of 'movement ecology'. Here, we outline how movement ecology can contribute to the broad field of biodiversity research, i.e. the study of processes and patterns of life among and across different scales, from genes to ecosystems, and we propose a conceptual framework linking these hitherto largely separated fields of research. Our framework builds on the concept of movement ecology for individuals, and demonstrates its importance for linking individual organismal movement with biodiversity. First, organismal movements can provide 'mobile links' between habitats or ecosystems, thereby connecting resources, genes, and processes among otherwise separate locations. Understanding these mobile links and their impact on biodiversity will be facilitated by movement ecology, because mobile links can be created by different modes of movement (i.e., foraging, dispersal, migration) that relate to different spatiotemporal scales and have differential effects on biodiversity. Second, organismal movements can also mediate coexistence in communities, through 'equalizing' and 'stabilizing' mechanisms. This novel integrated framework provides a conceptual starting point for a better understanding of biodiversity dynamics in light of individual movement and space-use behavior across spatiotemporal scales. By illustrating this framework with examples, we argue that the integration of movement ecology and biodiversity research will also enhance our ability to conserve diversity at the genetic, species, and ecosystem levels.

Keywords: Biodiversity conservation; Community dynamics; Individual based modeling; Landscape genetics; Long distance movement; Mobile links; Species coexistence.

Figure 1

A schematic overview of the typical spatial and temporal scales of different movement types of animals (including all body masses; a given species may cover only a small part of these spatio- temporal ranges): foraging (green ellipse), dispersal ( blue ellipse) and migration (red ellipse). These are also the typical scales at which studies investigate the fate of individuals or populations, which over large areas do not overlap with the scales at which biodiversity research typically takes place (grey rectangle).

Figure 2

Integrative conceptual framework for the linkage of movement ecology with biodiversity research. The movement ecology framework for individuals (after [26]) is linked to the concept of mobile links (see Background information 1) and the concept of equalizing and stabilizing mechanisms for species coexistence (sensu [28], see Background information 2). An individual moves according to its internal state, its navigation capacity and its motion capacity, all of which are affected by external environmental conditions. The resulting movement path feeds back to the internal state. Via the movement path moving animals provide a link between communities and ecosystems that are otherwise separate. Based on what the animals primarily transport and translocate they can be categorized as resource, process and genetic linkers ([27], see Background information 1). Note that the moving individuals may belong to multiple, possibly interacting, species with separate/distinct movement behavior. Effects of mobile links can change external factors (e.g. nutrient levels or cycling) at the connected habitats and ecosystems; they can add new genetic material and species thereby directly impacting biodiversity or they can modify local intra- and interspecific interactions, e.g. through seed transport from source to sink habitats. Intra- and interspecific interactions can also be directly influenced by the specific movement path of individuals, e.g. through active spatial avoidance of competition or predation. Finally, external factors and intra- and interspecific interactions determine the strength and role of stabilizing and equalizing mechanisms in species coexistence (see Background information 2).