Parameter variability can produce heavy tails in a model for the spatial distribution of settling organisms

We show that a simple mechanistic model of spatial dispersal for settling organisms, subject to parameter variability, can generate heavy-tailed radial probability density functions. The movement of organisms in the model consists of a two-dimensional diffusion that ceases after a random time, where the parameters that characterize each of these stages have been randomized. Our findings show that these minimal assumptions can yield heavy-tailed dispersal patterns, providing a simplified framework that increases the understanding of long-distance dispersal events in movement ecology.