Evolutionary rescue is the process by which a population, in response to an environmental change, successfully avoids extinction through adaptation. In spatially structured environments, dispersal can affect the probability of rescue. Here, we model an environment consisting of patches that degrade one after another, and we investigate the probability of rescue by a mutant adapted to the degraded habitat. We focus on the effects of dispersal and of immigration biases. We find that the probability of evolutionary rescue can undergo up to three regions: (i) starting from low dispersal rates, it increases with dispersal; (ii) at intermediate dispersal rates, it decreases; (iii) finally, at large dispersal rates, the probability of rescue increases again with dispersal, except if mutants are too counter-selected in not-yet-degraded patches. The probability of rescue is generally highest when mutant and wild-type individuals preferentially immigrate into patches that have already undergone environmental change. Additionally, we find that mutants that will eventually rescue the population most likely first appear in non-degraded patches. Overall, our results show that habitat choice, when compared to the often studied unbiased immigration scheme, can substantially alter the dynamics of population survival and adaptation to new environments.

For the codes to run on a cluster one can use the files run.sh and script.sh which can be found in every subfolder. The code for compiling the C++ files is in the header of the corresponding C++ file (GNU scientific library is used). All files can be found in a structured form (folders for each figures) at https://gitlab.com/pczuppon/evolutionary_rescue_and_dispersal Funding provided by: Agence Nationale de la RechercheCrossref Funder Registry ID: http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100001665Award Number: ANR-14-ACHN-0003Funding provided by: Agence Nationale de la RechercheCrossref Funder Registry ID: http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100001665Award Number: ANR-19-CE45-0009-01Funding provided by: European Union's Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Program*Crossref Funder Registry ID: Award Number: PolyPath 844369Funding provided by: European Union's Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation ProgramCrossref Funder Registry ID: Award Number: PolyPath 844369

Codes and datasets for generating the figures in the main text and the Supplementary Information of the manuscript entitled "The effect of habitat choice on evolutionary rescue in subdivided populations" published in The American Naturalist.