Data from: Social information from immigrants: multiple immigrant based sources of information for dispersal decisions in a ciliate

1. Dispersal is increasingly recognized as being an informed process, based on information organisms obtain about the landscape. While local conditions are often found to drive dispersal decisions, local context is not always a reliable predictor of conditions in neighbouring patches, making the use of local information potentially useless or even maladaptive. In this case, using social information gathered by immigrants might allow adjusting dispersal decisions without paying the costs of prospecting. However, this hypothesis has been largely neglected despite its major importance for ecological and evolutionary processes. 2. We investigated three fundamental questions about immigrant-informed dispersal: Do immigrants convey information that influences dispersal, do organisms use multiple cues from immigrants, and is immigrant-informed dispersal genotype dependent? 3. Using Tetrahymena thermophila ciliates in microcosms, we manipulated the number of immigrants arriving, the density of congeners, the resource quality in neighbouring patches, matrix characteristics and the level of cooperation of individuals in the neighbouring populations. 4. We provide the first experimental evidence that immigrants convey a number of different cues about neighbouring patches and matrix (patch quality, matrix characteristics and cooperation in neighbouring populations) in this relatively simple organism. Furthermore, we demonstrate genotype-dependent immigrant-informed dispersal decisions about patch quality and matrix characteristics. 5. Multiple cues from immigrants and genotype-dependent use of cues have major implications for theoretical metapopulation dynamics and the potential for local adaptation.1. 扩散过程现已愈发被认为是基于生物体对景观所获取信息的主动决策过程。尽管局域条件常被发现是驱动扩散决策的关键因素，但局域背景并非总能可靠预测邻域生境斑块的状况，这使得依赖局域信息的策略可能失效，甚至产生适应不良的后果。在此情形下，利用移民个体收集的社会信息，或许能够在无需承担探查成本的前提下调整扩散决策。然而，尽管该假说对生态学与进化过程具有重要意义，却长期被学界大幅忽视。 2. 本研究围绕基于移民信息的扩散，探讨了三个核心问题：移民个体是否会传递能够影响扩散行为的信息？生物体是否会利用移民个体传递的多种线索？基于移民信息的扩散决策是否依赖于基因型？ 3. 本研究以微宇宙系统中的嗜热四膜虫（Tetrahymena thermophila，纤毛虫类群）为实验对象，操控了以下变量：迁入的移民个体数量、同属物种的种群密度、邻域生境斑块的资源质量、基质特征，以及邻域种群中个体的合作水平。 4. 本研究首次通过实验证实，在这类相对简单的生物体中，移民个体能够传递多种关于邻域生境斑块与基质的线索（包括斑块质量、基质特征以及邻域种群的合作水平）。此外，我们还证明了针对斑块质量与基质特征的基于移民信息的扩散决策，确实存在基因型依赖性。 5. 来自移民个体的多线索信息，以及对线索的基因型依赖性利用，对于理论集合种群动态以及局部适应的潜在机制，均具有重要的理论启示意义。