Spatial personalities: a meta-analysis of consistent individual differences in spatial behavior

Abstract

Individual variation in behavior, particularly consistent among-individual differences (i.e., personality), has important ecological and evolutionary implications for population and community dynamics, trait divergence, and patterns of speciation. Nevertheless, individual variation in spatial behaviors, such as home range behavior, movement characteristics, or habitat use has yet to be incorporated into the concepts or methodologies of ecology and evolutionary biology. To evaluate evidence for the existence of consistent among-individual differences in spatial behavior – which we refer to as “spatial personality” – we performed a meta-analysis of 200 repeatability estimates of home range size, movement metrics, and habitat use. We found that the existence of spatial personality is a general phenomenon, with consistently high repeatability (r) across classes of spatial behavior (r = 0.67–0.82), taxa (r = 0.31–0.79), and time between repeated measurements (r = 0.54–0.74). These results suggest: 1) repeatable spatial behavior may either be a cause or consequence of the environment experienced and lead to spatial personalities that may limit the ability of individuals to behaviorally adapt to changing landscapes; 2) interactions between spatial phenotypes and environmental conditions could result in differential reproduction, survival, and dispersal, suggesting that among-individual variation may facilitate population-level adaptation; 3) spatial patterns of species' distributions and spatial population dynamics may be better understood by shifting from a mean field analytical approach towards methods that account for spatial personalities and their associated fitness and ecological dynamics.

Recent trends in movement ecology of animals and human mobility

“…While it is logical that researchers explicitly study or control for the effects of the environment (including other individuals), we would have expected to find an increase in the study of the internal state, motion, and navigation, as well as in the percentage of studies addressing other components of the MEF in combination with external factors. Research on internal state showed a small growth over the years, which could be due to an increase in the number of studies investigating the links between energetic conditions and behavior within tracks [ 21 ], or the increase in the studies examining the links between individual behavioral type (i.e personality) and movement [ 62 ]. Thus, the technological improvements have not been sufficiently exploited.…”

Life history trade-offs in glucocorticoid-mediated habitat selection

“…This two-way relationship between habitat and hormones may drive a positive feedback loop that reinforces habitat selection behaviour. With emerging evidence habitat selection behaviour is indeed repeatable (Stuber et al, 2022), and that continuous adult exposure to stressors can epigenetically alter offspring hormonal responses to the same stressors (Brass et al 2020), do intergenerational glucocorticoid-habitat selection feedback loops underlie specialization of populations on habitats? Looking beyond populations, an integrated approach to studying glucocorticoids and habitat selection may also provide insights into ecosystem functioning and the ability of species to respond to environmental change. The carbon stress hypothesis (Hawlena and Schmitz 2010) purports animals facing predation stress have higher cellular respiration rates, making them carbon limited.…”

“…This two-way relationship between habitat and hormones may drive a positive feedback loop that reinforces habitat selection behaviour. With emerging evidence habitat selection behaviour is indeed repeatable (Stuber et al, 2022), and that continuous adult exposure to stressors can epigenetically alter offspring hormonal responses to the same stressors (Brass et al 2020), do intergenerational glucocorticoid-habitat selection feedback loops underlie specialization of populations on habitats?…”

“…As population sizes change, animals distribute themselves among habitats with varying resources such that their expected fitness is equivalent (Morris, 2003). However, habitat selection strategies, and the resulting balance between survival and reproductive success, vary widely amongst individuals within populations (Stuber, Carlson, & Jesmer, 2022). In turn, individual variation in life history strategies is paralleled by variation in glucocorticoid production and its effects on behaviour (Vitousek, Jenkins, & Safran, 2014).…”

Movement predictability of individual barn owls facilitates home range size and survival estimation

“…Studies in behavioral ecology have long-established the framework and tools to quantify consistency in individual behaviors, and the existence of animal personalities (aka temperament or behavioral types; hereafter BTs) in traits such as boldness, exploration and sociability [13,14]. More recently, accumulating evidence demonstrates that individuals are also repeatable in their movement and spatial behaviors, forming "spatial-BTs" [10,15]. Examples include repeatable home range behaviors [16,17], habitat use [18,19], or ner scale movement indices like maximal daily displacement [20,21].…”