Evolution of sex-biased dispersal (SBD)

Dispersal patterns predict how invasive species spread, how diseases transmit and where plants/animals will move next. In species with two sexes ("dioecious"), dispersal patterns are sometimes biased between the sexes, meaning one sex disperses closer/further away than the opposite sex. Why should one sex travel further than the other? There are lots of hypotheses that have attempted to explain the evolution of biased dispersal patterns between the sexes and all of them rely on sex-based differences in needs for either resources or mates. When competition for mates or resources differs between the sexes (i.e. one sex is more mate limited or one sex requires greater resources) than the evolution of sex-biased dispersal (SBD) may occur when competition for mates or resources is high. We test these predictions in a new publication out in Ecology and Evolution, read it here.