Published in

Wiley, Ecology Letters, 6(17), p. 756-767, 2014

DOI: 10.1111/ele.12275

Links

Tools

Export citation

Search in Google Scholar

Life-history syndromes: Integrating dispersal through space and time

Journal article published in 2014 by Mathieu Buoro ORCID, Stephanie M. Carlson ORCID
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.

Full text: Download

Green circle
Preprint: archiving allowed
Orange circle
Postprint: archiving restricted
Red circle
Published version: archiving forbidden
Data provided by SHERPA/RoMEO

Abstract

Recent research has highlighted interdependencies between dispersal and other life-history traits, i.e. dispersal syndromes, thereby revealing constraints on the evolution of dispersal and opportunities for improved ability to predict dispersal by considering suites of dispersal-related traits. This review adds to the growing list of life-history traits linked to spatial dispersal by emphasising the interdependence between dispersal through space and time, i.e. life-history diversity that distributes individuals into separate reproductive events. We reviewed the literature that has simultaneously investigated spatial and temporal dispersal to examine the prediction that traits of these two dispersal strategies are negatively correlated. Our results suggest that negative covariation is widely anticipated from theory. Empirical studies often reported evidence of weak negative covariation, although more complicated patterns were also evident, including across levels of biological organisation. Existing literature has largely focused on plants with dormancy capability, one or two phases of the dispersal process (emigration and/or transfer) and a single level of biological organisation (theory: individual; empirical: species). We highlight patterns of covariation across levels of organisation and conclude with a discussion of the consequences of dispersal through space and time and future research areas that should improve our understanding of dispersal-related life-history syndromes.