Data from: What is long-distance dispersal? and a taxonomy of dispersal events

Dispersal is a key individual-based process influencing many life-history
attributes and scaling up to population-level properties (e.g.
metapopulation connectivity). A persistent challenge in dispersal ecology
has been the robust characterization of dispersal functions (kernels), a
fundamental tool to predict how dispersal processes respond under global
change scenarios. Particularly, the rightmost tail of these functions,
that is the long-distance dispersal (LDD) events, are difficult to
characterize empirically and to model in realistic ways. But, when is it a
LDD event? In the specific case of plants, dispersal has three basic
components: (i) a distinct (sessile) source, the maternal plant producing
the fruits or the paternal tree acting as a source of pollen; (ii) a
distance component between source and target locations; and (iii) a vector
actually performing the movement entailing the dispersal event. Here, I
discuss operative definitions of LDD based on their intrinsic properties:
(i) events crossing geographic boundaries among stands; and (ii) events
contributing to effective gene flow and propagule migration. Strict-sense
long-distance dispersal involves movement both outside the stand
geographic limits and outside the genetic neighbourhood area of
individuals. Combinations of propagule movements within/outside these two
spatial reference frames result in four distinct modes of LDD. Synthesis.
I expect truncation of seed dispersal kernels to have multiple
consequences on demography and genetics, following to the loss of key
dispersal services in natural populations. Irrespective of neighbourhood
sizes, loss of LDD events may result in more structured and less cohesive
genetic pools, with increased isolation by distance extending over broader
areas. Proper characterization of the LDD events helps to assess, for
example, how the ongoing defaunation of large-bodied frugivores
pervasively entails the loss of crucial LDD functions.