Discuss the dispersal mechanisms in environmental processes

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For an organism to occupy a potential habitat, it should be able to get there. The extension of its range in the habitat depends on its range of tolerance and its ability to compete successfully with those already in existence or that invade it later. The organisms therefore, require an efficient migration or dispersal mechanism and aggressiveness in resource exploitation. Less efficient migrators cannot realize their
potential rang, and they tend to be limited in distribution. The process of organism dispersal is important not only for the spread of the organism but also to avoid competition for limited resources.
It involves the movement of organisms from their evolution areas and refugia. Organisms start spreading differently once opportunities become available. Some movement will involve diffusion across hospitable terrain along a pathway called corridor route. The movement along this route is very slow and may take thousands of years, sometimes involving some evolutionary processes. The habitats en route are very diverse, thus permitting movement of a lot of organisms. The Bering Strait is an example of a corridor route that assisted the dispersal of organisms between Europe and North America until the recent Pleistocene period. The edge interconnecting habitats sometimes becomes selective to migrators. This imposes stress on some and not others. Such dispersal pathways are called filter routes. A third route is the sweepstakes route in which potential habitats are isolated by barriers such as mountains, water masses and islands of vegetation.
The spread of an organism along a sweepstake route depends upon chance dispersal. The journey, which involves birds, insects, and propagules with aerial adaptation to cross barriers, leads to a final biota, which is not representative of the source area. Such no-representative distribution depends upon the efficiency of dispersal mechanism and the ability of an organism to establish itself successfully in the new environment.

francis1897 answered the question on October 11, 2022 at 06:46

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Discuss the dispersal mechanisms in environmental processes

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