Illustration of species distribution.
A species range maps represents the geographical region where individuals of a species can be found.
Species distribution is the manner in which a biological taxon is spatially arranged. Species distribution is not to be confused with dispersal, which is the movement of individuals away from their area of origin or from centers of high population density.
Bio–geographers (Biogeography is the study of the distribution of species) try to understand the factors determining a species distribution. The pattern of distribution is not permanent for each species. Distribution patterns can change seasonally, in response to the availability of resources, and also depending on the scale at which they are viewed.
Biological dispersal refers to species movement away from an existing population or away from the parent organism.
Dispersal and distribution: Biological dispersal refers to species movement away from an existing population or away from the parent organism. Through simply moving from one habitat patch to another, the dispersal of an individual has consequences not only for individual fitness, but also for population dynamics, population genetics, and species distribution.
The movement of individuals away from centers of high population density or from there area of origin, called dispersal, contributes to the global distribution of organisms. For example, why there are no kangaroos in North America? A bio–geographer might propose this simple hypothesis: They could not get there because a barrier to their dispersal existed; the area has been inaccessible to kangaroos since they first appeared. However, while land–bound kangaroos have not reached North America under their own power, some other organisms that are adapted for long–distance dispersal, such as some birds, have . The dispersal of organisms is critical to understanding both geographic isolation in evolution and the broad patterns of current geographic distributions of species.