Dispersal Ecology of Land Plants: Striving Towards a More Universal Understanding

Plant dispersal is an essential ecological process involving the movement of individuals and genes across different spatial and temporal scales. Although this process occurs at the individual level, it has far-reaching consequences at higher organizational levels through its impact on the structure and dynamics of entire populations and communities. Plant dispersal capacities also govern plant distributional ranges and abundance over space and time which contributes to shaping biodiversity at an even broader scale. Despite its ecological and evolutionary significance, it is striking that plant dispersal processes have largely focused on the spermatophytes (seed plants). Accordingly, there is a limited understanding of the mechanisms and consequences of dispersal in other terrestrial plant taxonomic groups such as bryophytes and pteridophytes. These groups are important components of many terrestrial ecosystems, so this knowledge gap prevents us from acquiring a more holistic understanding of how plant dispersal shapes populations, communities, and, more broadly, biodiversity patterns.

The goal of this Research Topic is to compile up-to date knowledge on the mechanisms, and consequences of plant dispersal across all embryophytes (i.e. all terrestrial plant groups), with a special emphasis on the understudied taxa. Dispersal is a highly complex process that encompasses historical (phylogenetic signal – common ancestry), biological (phenotypic traits related to pre- or post-zygotic dispersal; recruitment-related phenotypic traits), ecological (biotic and abiotic factors), and anthropogenic (changes to the biotic and abiotic factors) aspects that interact with each other at different spatial and temporal scales. By compiling studies across taxonomic groups, this special issue aims to create a forum to advance research on dispersal processes in underexplored lineages and to find unifying and contrasting patterns with processes in well-studied lineages. Ultimately, evidence from different plant taxa will help to understand how the various aspects interplay to determine the final outcome of dispersal. This will allow to formulate universal questions and hypotheses about the impact of dispersal processes on population and community structure or biodiversity patterns.

We welcome Original Research articles, Reviews, Perspective, and Methods articles that cover, but are not limited to, one or more of the following topics in embryophytes but with a special emphasis on the understudied groups. We also encourage authors to submit comparative studies across plant taxa:

• Identification of the main biological drivers, i.e. dispersal- and recruitment-related phenotypic traits, of plant inherent capacities for dispersal and recruitment
• Understanding how plant dispersal and recruitment processes contribute to population and community structure and composition
• Deciphering which and how ecological processes (including both biotic and abiotic interactions) influence plant dispersal and recruitment
• Assess how biological, ecological, and historical processes affecting plant dispersal, combined or in isolation, determine plant distributional ranges
• Unravel the effect of anthropogenic barriers on plant dispersal: main implications for short-, mid-, and long-term population and/or species persistence

Topic Editor Dr. Carolina Da Silva Carvalho is employed by Instituto Tecnologico Vale. The other Topic Editors declare no competing interests with regard to the Research Topic.