Evolutionarily stable dispersal strategies.

Using the idea that life-history parameters are subject to natural selection and should approach values that are stable optima, with the population immune to invasion by mutant individuals, we derive an analytic expression for the evolutionarily stable dispersal rate in a stochastic island model with random site extinction. The results provide interesting contrasts between three different optimization criteria: species survival, individual fitness and gene fitness. We also consider the effects of sexual reproduction, and of localized migration (stepping-stone structure).