Title Statistical analysis of the influence of conspecifics on the dispersal of a soil collembola.
Authors Göran Bengtsson, Tobias Rydén, Maria Sjögren Öhrn, Magnus Wiktorsson
Alternative Location http://www.ingentaconnect.c..., Restricted Access
Alternative Location http://dx.doi.org/10.1006/t..., Restricted Access
Publication Theoretical Population Biology
Year 2002
Volume 61
Issue 2
Pages 97 - 113
Document type Article
Status Published
Quality controlled Yes
Language eng
Publisher Academic Press
Abstract English The evidence for dispersal activity among soil-living invertebrates comes mainly from observations of their movement on artificial substrates or of colonisation of defaunated soils in the field. In an attempt to elucidate the dispersal pattern of soil collembolans in the presence of conspecifics, statistical analyses were undertaken to describe and simulate the movement of groups of Onychiurus armatus released in trays of homogeneous soil. A chi(2) test was used to reject the null hypothesis that individuals moved independently of each other and uniformly in all directions. The mean radial distance moved (1-2 cm day(-1)) and the radial standard deviation varied temporally and with the density of conspecifics. To capture the interaction between the moving individuals, four dispersal models (pure diffusion, diffusion with drift interaction, drift interaction and synchronised diffusion, and drift interaction and behavioural mood), were formulated as stochastic differential equations. The parameters of the models were estimated by minimising the deviance between the observed replicates and replicates that were simulated using the models. The dynamics of movement were best described by modelling the drift interaction as dependent on whether individuals were in a social or an asocial mood.
Keywords Animal, Animal Migration, Chi-Square Distribution, Statistical, Models, Movement, Oligochaeta, Social Behavior, Soil, Stochastic Processes, Support, Non-U.S. Gov't, Sweden,
ISBN/ISSN/Other ISSN: 0040-5809

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