Movement rules determine nomadic species’ responses to resource supplementation and degradation

1. In environments that vary unpredictably, many animals are nomadic, moving in an irregular pattern that differs from year to year. Exploring the mechanisms of nomadic movement is needed to understand how animals survive in highly variable environments, and to predict behavioral and population responses to environmental change. 2. We developed a network model to identify plausible mechanisms of nomadic animal movement by comparing the performance of multiple movement rules along a continuum from nomadism to residency. Using simulations and analytical results, we explored how different types of habitat modifications (that augment or decrease resource availability) might affect the abundance and movement rates of animals following each of these rules. 3. Movement rules for which departure from patches depended on either resource availability or competition performed almost equally well and better than residency or uninformed movement under most conditions, even though animals using each ...