Fig. 1

Setting the scene. a The physiological state of an individual determines the fundamental elements of movement (FME), as well as an individual’s decision making to switch between different movement modes (CAM) like resting, foraging, dispersing and migrating. Integrated over lifetime, movement is thus central to individual performance, and to fitness across generations. b The physiological state of an organism is directly determined by the environment and the elementary (FME) and canonical (CAM) movement modes. Feedbacks among these will affect ecological dynamics at the population and community-level which in turn are anticipated to steer physiology and movement through environmental changes