The influence of dispersal on zooplankton communities

人类活动改变了世界上许多生态系统，往往造成严重的环境影响，生物多样性下降往往被认为是最严重的后果之一。因此，生态学家面临着预测生态系统将如何应对环境变化的挑战。竞争、捕食和环境条件等当地因素显然在构建群落中起着重要作用。然而，在过去的十年里，随着生态学家越来越意识到扩散在形成群落组成方面所起的重要作用，范式发生了转变。个体在生境斑块之间的分散可以增加物种和遗传变异的来源，使群落能够对环境变化作出反应。

Many of the world's ecosystems have been altered by human activities, often resulting in severe environmental impacts, with declines in biodiversity frequently identified as one of the most serious repercussions. Ecologists are, therefore, faced with the challenge of predicting how ecosystems will respond to environmental change. Local factors such as competition, predation, and environmental conditions clearly play an important role in structuring communities. However, over the past decade there has been a paradigm shift, with ecologists becoming increasingly aware of the important role that dispersal plays in shaping community composition. Dispersal of individuals among habitat patches can provide an increased source of both species and genetic variation that enable communities to respond to environmental change.