Theory 15/Exploration vs Exploitation/Marine larvae
Dispersal Costs Adaptation
The claim
Longer larval dispersal trades colonisation range against local adaptation, so widely dispersing species are less locally tuned.
01Mechanism
Dispersal mixes genotypes across habitats, which prevents specialisation on any one; short dispersal allows local adaptation at the cost of range.
02Prediction
Local adaptation should fall with dispersal distance.
03Refutation
Adaptation independent of dispersal would remove the trade-off.