> ## Content Index
> Fetch the complete content index at: https://intelligence.wildlandseco.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further.

# Some apparent ‘heritability’ in dispersal may be the geometry of the nest boxes
- URL: https://intelligence.wildlandseco.com/2026-09-25-blue-tit-dispersal-spatial-autocorrelation/
- Published: 2026-09-25T11:24:47.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-25T11:24:47.000Z
- Description: A new blue-tit preprint finds modest genetic signal for natal dispersal—but shows spatial autocorrelation can manufacture additive variance in three of four populations.
- Author: Benjamin Worlund
- Tags: blue tits, natal dispersal, heritability, spatial autocorrelation, Wildlife, Movement, Genetics, Methods, Monitoring, #ecological-intelligence, #brief-2026-09-25, #weak-signal, #preprint, #geo-europe

Evidence

Preprint

Geography

Four long-term European blue-tit nest-box populations

System

Woodland nest-box bird populations

## WHAT THE EVIDENCE SAYS

Using four blue-tit populations monitored for 26–48 years, the preprint combines pedigrees for 2,718 individuals with genomic analyses on 139 birds. Estimated natal-dispersal heritability ranged from about 0.03 to 0.13, but permutation and power analyses showed that nest-box spatial arrangement could generate spurious additive genetic variance in three of the four populations; four SNP associations were also reported.

## WHY IT MATTERS / OUR READ

For long-running field studies, the sampling lattice is not neutral. Spatially structured monitoring can leak into genetic inference, which makes this a useful methodological signal well beyond dispersal ecology.

## CAVEATS / UNCERTAINTY

This is a preprint with modest heritability estimates and broad uncertainty, and the genome-wide sample is small. Results come from intensively monitored nest-box populations and the reported SNP associations should be treated as exploratory until replicated.

## SOURCE

EcoEvoRxiv  
[View original evidence ↗](https://ecoevorxiv.org/repository/view/15177/?ref=intelligence.wildlandseco.com)

From the Morning Brief · 2026-09-25

[Read the full Morning Brief →](https://intelligence.wildlandseco.com/morning-brief-2026-09-25/)