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Nature 269, 578-581 (13 October 1977) | doi:10.1038/269578a0; Accepted 5 July 1977

Dispersal in stable habitats

W. D. Hamilton* & Robert M. May

  1. *Imperial College Field Station, Silwood Park, Ascot, Berkshire, UK
  2. Department of Biology, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey 08540
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Simple mathematical models show that adaptations for achieving dispersal retain great importance even in uniform and predictable environments. A parent organism is expected to try to enter a high fraction of its propagules into competition for sites away from its own immediate locality even when mortality to such dispersing propagules is extremely high. The models incidentally provide a case where the evolutionarily stable dispersal strategy for individuals is suboptimal for the population as a whole.