Temporal plasticity in habitat selection criteria explains patterns of animal dispersal

Patterns of dispersal behavior are often driven by the composition and configuration of suitable habitat in a matrix of unsuitable habitat. Interactions between behavior and landscapes can therefore influence population dynamics, population and species distributions, population genetic structure, and the evolution of behavior. Spatially-explicit individual-based models are ideal tools for exploring the effects of landscape structure on dispersal. We developed an empirically-parameterized IBM in the modeling framework SEARCH to simulate dispersal of translocated American martens in Wisconsin, USA. We tested the hypothesis that a time-limited disperser should be willing to settle in lower quality habitat over time. To evaluate model performance, we used a pattern-oriented modeling approach. Our best model matched all empirical dispersal patterns (e.g., dispersal distance) except time to settlement. This model incorporated the mechanism for declining habitat selectivity over time, which r...