Biological dispersal

Biological dispersal refers to a species movement away from an existing population or away from the parent organism. Through simply moving from one habitat patch to another, the dispersal of an individual has consequences not only for individual fitness, but also for population dynamics, population genetics, and species' distribution. Understanding dispersal and the consequences on an ecosystem level requires understanding on the type of dispersal, the dispersal range of a given species, and the dispersal mechanisms involved.


Dispersal from parent population

Types of dispersal

In general there are two basic types of dispersal: density independent and dependent.

Density Independent dispersal

In many cases, organisms have evolved adaptations for dispersal that take advantage of various forms of kinetic energy occurring naturally in the environment. This is refered to as density independent or passive dispersal and operates on many groups of organisms (some invertebrates, fish, insects and sessile organisms such as plants) that depend on animal vectors, wind, gravity or current for dispersal.

Density Dependent dispersal

On the other hand, it is now well recognized that density dependent or active dispersal for many animals largely depends on factors such as local population size, resource competition, habitat quality, habitat size, etc[6][7]. Due to population density, dispersal may relieve pressure for resources in an ecosystem, and competition for these resources may be a selection factor for dispersal mechanisms.

Dispersal of organisms is a critical process for understanding both geographic isolation in evolution through gene flow and the broad patterns of current geographic distributions.

Dispersal Range

Dispersal range refers to the distance a species can move from an existing population or the parent organism. An ecosystem depends critically on the ability of individuals and populations to disperse from one habitat patch to another. Therefore, biological dispersal is critical to the stability of ecosystems.

Environmental Contraints

Few species are ever evenly or randomly distributed within or across landscapes. In general, species significantly vary across the landscape in association with environmental features that influence their reproductive success and population persistenceSpatial patterns in environmental features (e.g. resources) permit individuals to escape unfavorable conditions and seek out new locations. This allows the organism to "test" new environments for their suitability, provided they are within animal's geographic range. In addition, the ability of a species to disperse over a gradually changing environment could enable a population to survive extreme conditions (i.e. climate change).

Dispersal Barriers

A dispersal barrier may mean that the dispersal range of a species is much smaller than the species distribution (e.g. habitat fragmentation due to human land use). However, there are also natural barriers to dispersal that limit species distribution (e.g. mountain ranges, rivers, etc.).
On the other hand, human activities may also expand the dispersal range of a species by providing new dispersal routes for invasive species (e.g. roads).

Dispersal Mechanisms

Most (but not all) animals are capable of locomotion and the basic mechanism of dispersal is movement from one place to another. Locomotion allows the organism to "test" new environments for their suitability, provided they are within animal's range. Movements are usually guided by inherited behaviors.


Plant Dispersal Mechanisms

See Seed Dispersal

Animal Dispersal Mechanisms

Non-motile animals

There are numerous animal forms that are non-motile, such as sponges, bryozoans, tunicates, sea anemones, corals, and oysters. In common, they are all either marine or aquatic. It may seem curious that plants have been so successful at stationary life on land, while animals have not, but the answer lies in the food supply. Plants produce their own food from sunlight and carbon dioxide—both generally more abundant on land than in water. Animals fixed in place must rely on the surrounding medium to bring food at least close enough to grab, and this occurs in the three-dimensional water environment, but with much less abundance in the atmosphere.

All of the marine and aquatic invertebrates whose lives are spent fixed to the bottom (more or less; anemones are capable of getting up and moving to a new location if conditions warrant) produce dispersal units. These may be specialized "buds", or motile sexual reproduction products, or even a sort of alteration of generations as in certain cnidaria.

Corals provide a good example of how sedentary species achieve dispersion. Corals reproduce by releasing sperm and eggs directly into the water. These release events are coordinated by lunar phase in certain warm months, such that all corals of one or many species on a given reef will release on the same single or several consecutive nights. The released eggs are fertilized, and the resulting zygote develops quickly into a multicellular planula. This motile stage then attempts to find a suitable substratum for settlement. Most are unsuccessful and die or are fed upon by zooplankton and bottom dwelling predators such as anemones and other corals. However, untold millions are produced, and a few do succeed in locating spots of bare limestone, where they settle and transform by growth into a polyp. All things being favorable, the single polyp grows into a coral head by budding off new polyps to form a colony.

Motile animals

The majority of all animals are motile (see locomotion for details). Although motile animals can, in theory, disperse themselves by their spontaneous and independent locomotive powers, a great many species utilize the existing kinetic energies in the environment, resulting in passive movement. Dispersal by water currents is especially associated with the physically small inhabitants of marine waters known as zooplankton. The term plankton comes from the Greek, πλαγκτον, meaning "wanderer" or "drifter".