A new synthesis of demography and dispersal

Our understanding of demography has improved tremendously over the past 50 years. So has our understanding of dispersal and its erects. However, our understanding of how demography and dispersal interact to determine spatiotemporal population dynamics is relatively poor. Recent theoretical advances provide tools that can bridge this gap, but because demographic and dispersal data are rarely presented together, they have yet to be applied. We propose to remedy this by forming a working group of empirical ecologists who have (or might obtain) both demographic and dispersal data and theoreticians interested in demography and dispersal. We will thus bring together and analyze combinations of data that otherwise would not be combined, and jump-start the process of unifying the theory of demography and dispersal.