Evolutionarily stable strategies of migration in heterogeneous environments

Abstract. By means of a simulation model we are showing that the rates of migration can be related to avoidance of competition between relatives, especially in clonal organisms. This could result in a strong selective pressure for migration, even at a high cost. In addition, if the habitat is fragmented, migration can strongly aect local dynamics and result in a dramatic decrease of the densities in some places. In parthenogenetically reproducing organisms like aphids, the level of relatedness in local populations is expected to be very high and therefore they can serve as a good model group for testing these hypotheses