NTR: Species Dispersal

[pbuttigieg]

Picking up from https://github.com/EnvironmentOntology/envo/issues/270. @thearyung

Key processes

Proposed structure (all processual entities; I think it wise to keep "process" in the label to differentiate from the 'dispersal' in the sense of the distribution at time t):

organism dispersal process

biological dispersal process

natal dispersal process breeding dispersal process geodispersal process

vicariance process

Initial defs derived from Wikipedia's descriptions:

organism dispersal process =def. A process in which a collection of organisms or propagules thereof increases its spatial range. (comment: not necessarily linked to decreasing density of organisms, but often the case)

biological dispersal =def. an organism dispersal process in which the separation of populations with the disposition to transfer genes to one another is reduced. (comment: This separation may be purely spatial or a result of physical obstructions to gene flow. It is not simply spatial distance.)

natal dispersal =def. a biological dispersal process in which an organism moves from its birth site to its breeding site. (comment: the birth and breeding site are non-equivalent) (keeping birth and breeding here as this seems a form of dispersal relevant to 'traditional' breeding and species ideas)

breeding dispersal =def. a biological dispersal process in which organisms move from one breeding site to another. (comment: the breeding sites involved are non-equivalent)

geodispersal process =def. A process in which biological dispersal occurs as a result of the removal of a geophysical boundary which separates collections of organisms. (This should be linked to processes in ENVO which could erode or otherwise reduce the barriers to gene flow)

vicariance process =def. A process by which physical or biotic barriers to gene flow emerge in a site occupied by a collection of organisms which bear the disposition to transfer genes to one another. (I suppose biotic barriers could be ethological too, needs clarification. Also, sounds like a class that can be populated by inference. this may be true for many of these.)

3 Parts

Unsure if we need collection of organisms, or just organism. We may not need all right now, but gene flow would be good to have.

gene flow process=def. A process in which alleles or genes are transferred from members of one ecological population to another.

organism departure process =def. A process in which an organism moves away from an environmental system it had previously settled (i.e. was causally integrated into).

organism transfer process =def. A process in which an organism

organism settlement process =def. A process in which an organism integrates itself (i.e. finds a niche) into an environmental system. (This would be very useful for ENVO-PCO semantics)

breeding site =def. A site where organisms breed. (I suppose PCO should have things like reproductive processes including breeding to explain how we get from organisms to populations)

'birth site' =def. A site where an organism gives birth to its offspring. ( this should have a superclass like offspring-generating process to capture things like fission)

@rlwalls2008 could you tag these with my ORCID (0000-0002-4366-3088) so I can keep track of the classes in the wild?

[pbuttigieg]

An interesting reference here