More on optimal rates of dispersal: taking into account the cost of the dispersal mechanism

Examines evolutionarily stable dispersal strategies under the assumption that larger investment in the dispersal mechanism, which facilitates seed dispersal, inevitably results in reducing the total number of seeds produced. The strategies that have been considered are the amount invested in the dispersal apparatus and the realized rate of dispersal (ie the proportion of the progeny that leaves the parental site), assuming that dispersal rate is an increasing function of the amount invested in dispersal. Thus, whenever the cost of the dispersal mechanism restricts the total number of seeds produced by the plant, the evolutionarily stable dispersal strategy implies that a smaller, yet always positive, fraction of the progeny should be dispersed. -from Authors