Individual behavior at habitat edges may help populations persist in moving habitats

Abstract

Moving-habitat models aim to characterize conditions for population persistence under climate-change scenarios. Existing models do not incorporate individual-level movement behavior near habitat edges. These small-scale details have recently been shown to be crucially important for large-scale predictions of population spread and persistence in patchy landscapes. In this work, we extend previous moving-habitat models by including individual movement behavior. Our analysis shows that populations might be able to persist under faster climate change than previous models predicted. We also find that movement behavior at the trailing edge of the climatic niche is much more important for population persistence than at the leading edge.

Keywords: Edge behavior; Eigenvalue approximation; Linear analysis; Moving habitat model; Population persistence.