Theories and empirical evidence suggest that random dispersal of organisms promotes species coexistence in spatially structured environments. However, directed dispersal, where movement is adjusted with fitness-related cues, is less explored in studies of dispersal-mediated coexistence. Here, we present a metacommunity model of two consumers exhibiting directed dispersal and competing for a sin...

Dispersal costs need to be quantified from empirical data and incorporated into dispersal models to improve our understanding of the dispersal process. We are interested in quantifying how landscape features affect the immediately incurred direct costs associated with the transfer of an organism from one location to another. We propose that least-cost modelling is one method that can be used to...

We investigate the co-evolutionary relationship between sex-ratio bias and sex-specific dispersal behaviour using an inclusive fitness approach. We consider two models: (i) DDM, in which dispersal of both sexes occurs before mating; and (ii) DMD, in which male dispersal precedes mating and female dispersal follows mating. Under DDM, at equilibrium, there is no bias in either the sex ratio or th...

Recent syntheses on the evolutionary causes of dispersal have focused on dispersal as a direct adaptation, but many traits that influence dispersal have other functions, raising the question: when is dispersal 'for' dispersal? We review and critically evaluate the ecological causes of selection on traits that give rise to dispersal in marine and terrestrial organisms. In the sea, passive disper...

Dispersal is a process of central importance for the ecological and evolutionary dynamics of populations and communities, because of its diverse consequences for gene flow and demography. It is subject to evolutionary change, which begs the question, what is the genetic basis of this potentially complex trait? To address this question, we (i) review the empirical literature on the genetic basis...

Dispersal knowledge is essential for conservation management, and demand is growing. But are we accumulating dispersal knowledge at a pace that can meet the demand? To answer this question we tested for changes in dispersal data collection and use over time. Our systematic review of 655 conservation-related publications compared five topics: climate change, habitat restoration, population viabi...

Dispersal heterogeneity is increasingly being observed in ecological populations and has long been suspected as an explanation for observations of non-Gaussian dispersal. Recent empirical and theoretical studies have begun to confirm this. Using an integro-difference model, we allow an individual's diffusivity to be drawn from a trait distribution and derive a general relationship between the d...

Random dispersal describes the movement of organisms between adjacent spatial locations. However, the movement of some organisms such as seeds of plants can occur between non-adjacent spatial locations and is thus non-local. We propose to study a mixed dispersal strategy, which is a combination of random dispersal and non-local dispersal. More specifically, we assume that a fraction of individu...

Plant species vary greatly in their responsiveness to nutritional soil mutualists, such as mycorrhizal fungi and rhizobia, and this responsiveness is associated with a trade-off in allocation to root structures for resource uptake. As a result, the outcome of plant competition can change with the density of mutualists, with microbe-responsive plant species having high competitive ability when m...