Movement behavior is an essential element of fundamental ecological processes such as competition and predation. Although intraspecific trait variation (ITV) in movement behaviors is pervasive, its consequences for ecological community dynamics are still not fully understood. Using a newly developed individual‐based model, we analyzed how given and constant ITVs in foraging movement affect differences in foraging efficiencies between species competing for common resources under various resource distributions. Further, we analyzed how the effect of ITV on emerging differences in competitive abilities ultimately affects species coexistence. The model is generic but mimics observed patterns of among‐individual covariation between personality, movement and space use in ground‐dwelling rodents. Interacting species differed in their mean behavioral types along a slow–fast continuum, integrating consistent individual variation in average behavioral expression and responsiveness (i.e. behavioral reaction norms). We found that ITV reduced interspecific differences in competitive abilities by 5–35% and thereby promoted coexistence via an equalizing mechanism. The emergent relationships between behavioral types and foraging efficiency are characteristic for specific environmental contexts of resource distribution and population density. As these relationships are asymmetric, species that were either ‘too fast’ or ‘too slow’ benefited differently from ITV. Thus, ITV in movement behavior has consequences for species coexistence but to predict its effect in a given system requires intimate knowledge on how variation in movement traits relates to fitness components along an environmental gradient.

中文翻译：

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人格相关运动行为的种内特质变异促进共存

运动行为是诸如竞争和捕食等基本生态过程的基本要素。尽管种内性状变异（ITV）在运动行为中无处不在，但其对生态群落动态的影响仍未完全清楚。使用新开发的基于个体的模型，我们分析了在给定和恒定的ITV觅食运动中，它们如何影响各种资源分布下争夺公共资源的物种之间觅食效率的差异。此外，我们分析了ITV对新出现的竞争能力差异的影响最终如何影响物种共存。该模型是通用的，但是模仿了地面啮齿动物在性格，运动和空间使用之间个体间协变的观察模式。相互作用的物种在缓慢-连续的连续过程中，其平均行为类型有所不同，在平均行为表达和响应能力（即行为反应规范）中整合了一致的个体差异。我们发现，ITV通过竞争机制将种间差异降低了5–35％，从而促进了共存。行为类型和觅食效率之间出现的关系是资源分配和人口密度的特定环境情况的特征。由于这些关系是不对称的，因此“太快”或“太慢”的物种与ITV的受益不同。从而，