title: Lévy walks evolve through interaction between movement and environmental complexity.
abstract: Ecological theory predicts that animal movement is shaped by its efficiency of resource acquisition. Focusing solely on efficiency, however, ignores the fact that animal activity can affect resource availability and distribution. Here, we show that feedback between individual behavior and environmental complexity can explain movement strategies in mussels. Specifically, experiments show that mussels use a Lévy walk during the formation of spatially patterned beds, and models reveal that this Lévy movement accelerates pattern formation. The emergent patterning in mussel beds, in turn, improves individual fitness. These results suggest that Lévy walks evolved as a result of the selective advantage conferred by autonomously generated, emergent spatial patterns in mussel beds. Our results emphasize that an interaction between individual selection and habitat complexity shapes animal movement in natural systems.
authors.affiliation: Spatial Ecology Department, Netherlands Institute of Ecology (NIOO-KNAW), Yerseke, Netherlands. m.dejager@nioo.knaw.nl
authors.forename: Monique
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: de Jager
authors.forename: Franz J
authors.initials: FJ
authors.lastname: Weissing
authors.forename: Peter M J
authors.initials: PM
authors.lastname: Herman
authors.forename: Bart A
authors.initials: BA
authors.lastname: Nolet
authors.forename: Johan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: van de Koppel
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D005075:Biological Evolution; D003198:Computer Simulation; D000458:Cyanobacteria; D017753:Ecosystem; D004777:Environment; D005247:Feeding Behavior; D056084:Genetic Fitness; D008124:Locomotion; D008954:Models, Biological; D049880:Mytilus edulis / Q000502:physiology*; D011156:Population Density; D011336:Probability; D012641:Selection, Genetic