Abstract:
Dispersal plays an important role in species response to adverse climate changes. It
is a complex multi-stage process that involves multiple components, making its
measurement and interpretation challenging. Dispersal syndromes i.e. phenotypic
traits correlated with dispersal, may offer an alternative framework that might help
overcome some of the challenges of predicting dispersal. However, the definition
and usage of the term ‘dispersal syndrome’ varies across taxa, and phenotypic
correlations with dispersal are very heterogeneous. This review takes a closer look
at dispersal syndromes across plant and animal taxa in search of general patterns
and trends that could help put these inconsistencies in perspective. I find that the
prediction of dispersal rates is complicated by the lack of consistent phenotypic
associations with dispersal. In animals, phenotypic correlations are constrained by
differences in costs and benefits of dispersal across its stages and the environmental
context in which dispersal is being studied. In plants, dispersal syndromes are
inferred based on presumed modes of dispersal that are seldom tested directly on
field, thus making prediction of dispersal potential erratic. Most studies in plant
dispersal literature are focused on how dispersal vectors affect dispersal potential,
thus underestimating the importance of maternal plant traits and their plasticity in
modulating dispersal. In both, the integration of context-dependent environmental
effects is therefore an important emerging focus in the study of dispersal evolution.
