The expectation that dispersal abilities evolve in response to resource dispersion is implicit in theoretical treatments of dispersal evolution but scant empirical evidence supports this claim. Further, constraints on dispersal trait expressions likely influence dispersal evolution. Dispersal is also expected to have implications for community membership via species sorting, but its influence on community trait distributions via an adaptive response to a selection pressure has never been investigated. Fig–fig wasp systems are multitrophic insect communities obligately associated with a single Ficus species. Wasps depend entirely on the fig microcosm for development and mating and exhibit varied life-history strategies. Only females disperse from natal figs to other figs for oviposition; inter-specific variation in oviposition resource availability is the result of fig flowering phenology and the unique association of each species to a fig developmental stage (oviposition window, OW) when it is suitable for oviposition.

Using simulations of fig phenology in a spatially implicit landscape and by incorporating known phenological parameters of Ficus racemosa, we demonstrate that despite stochasticity in resource initiation, smaller OWs reduce wasp colonization success independent of the spatial dispersion of host plant species. These results have profound implications for the persistence of species within the community.

By measuring dispersal traits such as tethered flight durations, metabolic rates and available flight fuel of the wasp community of F. racemosa, we find a negative relationship between dispersal traits and OW. However, our data also indicate phylogenetic and life-history constraints on dispersal trait expression.
By investigating a sister wasp community associated with a spatially clumped host plant (Ficus hispida) we demonstrate that the entire F. hispida wasp community exhibited lower dispersal capacities than that of the more widely dispersed F. racemosa.

Our work shows that resource dispersion selects for dispersal in natural communities and that community functional trait distributions can be influenced by an adaptive response of community members to ecological selection pressures.