Dispersal is central to many modern developments in ecology and is an area of study that is increasingly gathering attention. This volume, based on the 2001 BES symposium, aims to create links between ecological disciplines, between different areas of theory and between empirical and modelling approaches to dispersal, and will also inform some of the most important problems of applied ecology. An international team of experts discuss four main topic areas: dispersal and its measurement; evolution and behavioural ecology; dispersal and spatial process; and applications of an understanding of dispersal.