Talk:Biological dispersal

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To-do list for Biological dispersal:	edit · history · watch · refresh
Dispersal of microbial organisms, including fungi, viruses and bacteria The role of hunger (this article goes into it, though a better reference could be found) Dispersal by humans (main article: introduced species) Reference the article Add a diagram showing the survival and predation on seeds with dispersion distance from a tree A new article focusing on seed dispersal is a future possibility
Priority 4

[edit] Sources

there are no sources listed for any of the points, so i tagged it as unsourced - 12.4.81.145 15:31, 15 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Gravity

This link "(see Wind below)" goes nowhere - I do not have the skill to fix it but someone should remove or fix this. ~~Fritha~~ —Preceding unsigned comment added by 130.216.187.10 (talk) 20:56, 4 September 2007 (UTC)

The article says right now: The effect of gravity on the dispersal of seeds and spores is straightforward. Heavier seeds will tend to drop downward from the parent plant, and not by themselves travel very far.

It is okay to say gravity is responsible for a object to fall down on the ground. But the reasons for an object to fall more or less away from its parent object is due to buoyancy. If a coconut palm and a Dandelion clock were put in a vacuum room (where only gravity can act on a coconut's and dandelion seed's motion) both coconut and dandelion seed would fall the same way. --Abdull 15:05, 10 December 2005 (UTC)

I do not even understand your point other than that you are confirming the article's point. The sentence discusses "gravity" not "buoyancy in the air" and what happens in a vacumm is not at all pertinent to life on earth. - Marshman 17:58, 12 December 2005 (UTC)

The point is: gravity is not the only factor in how far the seeds will travel away from the parent plant. You can take a look at Appollo 15's

Hammer and Feather Drop

Scott demonstrates that Galileo was right. (1.38 MB, ogg/Theora format).
Problems seeing the videos? See media help.

In this video you will see a hammer (something heavy) falling with the same speed as a falcon's feather on the moon - this is because there is no atmosphere on Moon and therefore no buoyancy that could let the feather fall slower and travel farther.

Buoyancy is very important for biological dispersal. The article's sentence does not say this right now. --Abdull 13:12, 24 December 2005 (UTC)

Yes, you are correct that "bouyancy" is important: many plants have mechanisms that essentially overcome the limitations of strict gravity dispersion. What happens in a vacuum is not relevant at all; there are no plants on the moon or in any other vacuum. It is the structures and mechanisms that give seeds bouyancy (and which would be useless in a vacuum) that may need expanding on in the article (see under "wind" and "water"); but not because there is anything incorrect about what the article says about gravity dispersal. - Marshman 03:22, 26 December 2005 (UTC)

[edit] -chory

I noticed that there is no article for all the different types of dispersal, such as anemochory, zoochory, autochory, entomochory, etc. Should all of these definitions have their own article (they would probably end up being one line articles, so I guess not), be added to this article, or have a single seperate article? In the latter case, can anyone think of a good title, since "biological dispersal is already taken? Types of biological dispersal maybe? IronC hris | (talk) 17:36, 14 November 2006 (UTC)

The article here isn't too big, I would suggest just adding a section here and redirecting the red links to this article. If things get too large, we can always split. Richard001 03:44, 12 May 2007 (UTC)