Environmental variability can lead to dispersal: why stay put if it is better elsewhere? Without clues about local conditions, the optimal strategy is often to disperse a set fraction of offspring. Many habitats contain environmentally differing sub‐habitats. Is it adaptive for individuals to sense in which sub‐habitat they find themselves, using environmental clues, and respond plastically by altering the dispersal rates? This appears to be done by some plants which produce dimorphic seeds with differential dispersal properties in response to ambient temperature. Here we develop a mathematical model to show, that in highly variable environments, not only does sensing promote plasticity of dispersal morph ratio, individuals who can sense their sub‐habitat and respond in this way have an adaptive advantage over those who cannot. With a rise in environmental variability due to climate change, our understanding of how natural populations persist and respond to changes has become crucially important.

中文翻译：

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在岩石和坚硬的地方之间：自适应感测和针对特定地点的分散。

环境的变化会导致分散：如果其他地方更好，为什么还要保持现状呢？没有当地条件的线索，最佳策略通常是分散一定数量的后代。许多生境包含环境上不同的亚生境。个人是否可以利用环境线索来感知自己在哪个亚居环境中的感觉，并通过改变扩散速度做出可塑性的反应？这似乎是由一些植物根据环境温度产生具有不同分散特性的双态种子而完成的。在这里，我们建立了一个数学模型，以表明，在高度可变的环境中，感知不仅会促进分散形态比例的可塑性，而且能够感知其亚居环境并以这种方式做出响应的人比那些不能感知的人具有适应性优势。