Table 2.

Summary of factors favouring each strategy

Parameter	Expectations		Outcomes of simulations
	Increase expected to favour	Basis of expectation	Single strategy		Two-strategy		Follows predictions?
			DCF	ICF	Low	High
Life-history
Longevity	Colonizer	Equation 6	++	+++	ICF	ICF	Y
Maintenance cost	Unclear	a	–	–	DCF	ICF	na
Maximum growth rate	Colonizer	Equation 6	none	+	DCF	ICF	Y
Maturity threshold	None	Equation 6	–	–	DCF	ICF	na
Reproductive investment	Unclear	b	+	++	DCF	ICF	na
Environ.
Disturbance	Colonizer	Tilman	–	–	DCF	ICF	Y
Resources	Colonizer	Equation 6	+++	++	ICF	DCF	N
Aggregation	Competitor	c	+	–	ICF	DCF	Y

The predictions of increasing the parameter of interest, and basis for this prediction, are given in the first two columns (see main text). The single-strategy columns indicate the influence of the parameter on the abundance of each strategy, with increasing positive or negative effect indicated by increasing number of ±symbols. The dominating strategy at high and low parameter values under competition conditions is given in the two-strategy columns. The final column notes whether results followed the predictions (see “Results”). Tilman refers to Eq. 4.1 in Tilman [33]

^aEquation 6 predicts increasing maintenance costs will exacerbate differences in competitive ability thus favouring DCF, but increasing maintenance cost will also lead to more colonization opportunities by decreasing overall occupancy (see also main text)

^bEquation 6 predicts that DCF competitiveness is favoured by increasing asymmetry in propagule size (i.e., increasing reproductive investment) but ICF will also be advantaged through increased colonization ability from increased number of propagules [33, eq. 4.1]

^cHigher habitat aggregation is expected to favour the competitive strategy as increasing aggregation leads to increasing probability of dispersal to good patches for the low disperser, while colonizers disperse equally to good and bad habitat irrespective of their aggregation. This is a novel characteristic of our spatially explicit model