Figure 1.
Overview of the review methodology.
A. Sampling design, data collected and research questions. B. Flow chart based on PRISMA protocols [202] illustrating how papers were selected or discarded. Of the original 1405 papers, 765 were assessed for eligibility because papers were subsampled based on order of appearance in the literature (as detailed in methods).
Table 1.
Number of papers reviewed in each topic and time period.
Table 2.
Response variables used for addressing review questions (listed at the end of the introduction) and summary statistics.
Figure 2.
Importance of dispersal in papers and study type.
For factors that varied with topic, time or their interaction: the importance of dispersal in the reviewed papers (A – C), and; the study type (D – G). Responses indicate the proportion of reviewed papers with, for example, dispersal as the aim/main focus (A). Error bars indicate 95% confidence limits. Categories for age by topic interactions are indicated with abbreviated topic names (clim = climate change, inva = invasive species, plan = land planning, pva = PVA, rest = restoration). Old refers to papers from the first time period (1990s), while “new” indicates papers from (2010-12).
Table 3.
Research applications addressed by dispersal-related papers*, the number of papers addressing each in the Old and New time periods.
Figure 3.
Effects related to the five research questions.
For factors that varied with topic, time or their interaction: the method used to obtain dispersal data (A-C); the quality of the dispersal data, including relevance (D); dispersal statistic (E, F); and sample size (G); dispersal knowledge gaps (H); non-dispersal knowledge gaps (I); consequences for the study (J), and; consequences for management (K-M). Error bars indicate 95% confidence limits.
Figure 4.
Effects related to Taxon, Biome and Region.
For factors that varied with topic, time or their interaction: the frequency of papers that studied particular taxa (A-C); the biome they focussed on (D), and; the region of the world from which they were from (E-G). Error bars indicate 95% confidence limits.