The metatron: an experimental system to study dispersal and metaecosystems for terrestrial organisms

ABSTRACT Dispersal of organisms generates gene flow between populations. Identifying factors that influence dispersal will help predict how species will cope with rapid environmental change.

We developed an innovative infrastructure, the Metatron, composed of 48 interconnected patches, designed for the study of terrestrial organism movement as a model for dispersal. Corridors

between patches can be flexibly open or closed. Temperature, humidity and illuminance can be independently controlled within each patch. The modularity and adaptability of the Metatron

provide the opportunity for robust experimental design for the study of 'meta-systems'. We describe a pilot experiment on populations of the butterfly _Pieris brassicae_ and the

lizard _Zootoca vivipara_ in the Metatron. Both species survived and showed both disperser and resident phenotypes. The Metatron offers the opportunity to test theoretical models in spatial

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support SIMILAR CONTENT BEING VIEWED BY OTHERS SILAND A R PACKAGE FOR ESTIMATING THE SPATIAL INFLUENCE OF LANDSCAPE Article Open access 05 April 2021 INDIVIDUAL ENVIRONMENTAL NICHES IN

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The Metatron was funded by the European Union, the French government through the Ecology and Environment Institute of the CNRS (F. Gaill and B. Delay), the Region of the

Midi-Pyrenées, the Department of the Ariège and the intercommunal grouping of Saint-Girons. We thank E. Vialan for his technical help. M.B. and J. Clobert acknowledge support from the

project TenLamas funded by the French Agence Nationale de la Recherche through the EU FP6 BiodivERsA Eranet, the EU FP7 SCALES project ('Securing the conservations of biodiversity

across Administrative levels and spatial, temporal and Ecological Scales'; project no. 226852) and projects funded by the Agence Nationale de la Recherche: DIAME (open call, 2007) and

MOBIGEN (6th extinction call, 2009). This research program was also supported by a Fyssen Foundation research grant to J. Cote. S. Ducatez kindly provided unpublished data of butterfly

survival in laboratory conditions. This work is part of the Laboratoire d'Excellence TULIP (ANR-10-LABX-41). AUTHOR INFORMATION Author notes * Olivier Guillaume and Michel Baguette:

These authors contributed equally to this work. AUTHORS AND AFFILIATIONS * Station d'Ecologie Expérimentale du CNRS à Moulis (SEEM), Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS),

USR 2936, Moulis, France Delphine Legrand, Olivier Guillaume, Michel Baguette, Audrey Trochet, Olivier Calvez, Susanne Zajitschek, Felix Zajitschek & Jean Clobert * Département Ecologie

et Gestion de la Biodiversité, Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle, Paris, France Delphine Legrand & Michel Baguette * Laboratoire Evolution et Diversité Biologique (EDB), CNRS,

UMR 5174, Toulouse, France Julien Cote * Laboratoire EDB, Université de Toulouse, Toulouse, France Julien Cote * Department of Evolutionary Biology, Evolutionary Biology Centre, Uppsala

University, Uppsala, Sweden Susanne Zajitschek * Department of Animal Ecology, Ageing Research Group, Evolutionary Biology Centre, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden Felix Zajitschek *

Université Paris-Sud 11, UMR 8079, Orsay, France Jane Lecomte * CNRS, UMR 8079, Orsay, France Jane Lecomte * AgroParisTech, Paris, France Jane Lecomte * Délégation Midi-Pyrénées, CNRS,

Toulouse, France Quentin Bénard * Centre de Recherche en Ecologie Expérimentale et Prédictive (CEREEP)–Ecotron IleDeFrance, CNRS and Ecole Normale Supérieure, UMS 3194,

St-Pierre-lès-Nemours, France Jean-François Le Galliard * Laboratoire Ecologie et Evolution, CNRS and Ecole Normale Supérieure, UMS 3194, St-Pierre-lès-Nemours, France Jean-François Le

Galliard Authors * Delphine Legrand View author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar * Olivier Guillaume View author publications You can also search for

this author inPubMed Google Scholar * Michel Baguette View author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar * Julien Cote View author publications You can also

search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar * Audrey Trochet View author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar * Olivier Calvez View author

publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar * Susanne Zajitschek View author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar * Felix

Zajitschek View author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar * Jane Lecomte View author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google

Scholar * Quentin Bénard View author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar * Jean-François Le Galliard View author publications You can also search for

this author inPubMed Google Scholar * Jean Clobert View author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar CONTRIBUTIONS J. Clobert had the initial idea and

managed the fund acquisition for the construction of the Metatron. J. Clobert, J.L., J.-F.L.G., O.G., Q.B. and M.B. participated in the final conception of the system, and J. Clobert, O.G.

and Q.B. solved all the technical issues. D.L., A.T., O.C. and M.B. collected butterfly data. J. Cote, F.Z., S.Z., O.C. and J. Clobert collected lizard data. D.L. and A.T. analyzed the

butterfly data. J. Cote analyzed the lizard data. D.L., O.G., M.B., J. Cote, J.-F.L.G. and J. Clobert wrote the paper. All authors commented on and approved the final version of the paper.

CORRESPONDING AUTHOR Correspondence to Jean Clobert. ETHICS DECLARATIONS COMPETING INTERESTS The authors declare no competing financial interests. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION SUPPLEMENTARY

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Metatron: an experimental system to study dispersal and metaecosystems for terrestrial organisms. _Nat Methods_ 9, 828–833 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/nmeth.2104 Download citation *

Received: 13 October 2011 * Accepted: 01 June 2012 * Published: 15 July 2012 * Issue Date: August 2012 * DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nmeth.2104 SHARE THIS ARTICLE Anyone you share the

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