ESPM (Estimation of Seed and Pollen Migration Rates) is a free software to estimate seed and pollen dispersal among plant populations.
ESPM provides maximum-likelihood estimates of the contemporary rates of seed and pollen immigration from each of a set of discrete candidate source populations into a target recipient population. It also yields confidence intervals around each estimate, based on the profile-likelihood method.
ESPM requires population samples of biparentally inherited genotypes (such as nuclear SSRs and SNPs). Field sampling should involve two sequential steps, before and after the reference pollen-and-seed dispersal episode to which migration estimates will be referred. Random adult samples from all candidate source populations (including the recipient population) should be collected before dispersal, while a random sample of dispersed offspring should be collected from the target recipient population after dispersal.
For detailed reference and citations:
Robledo-Arnuncio JJ (2012) Joint estimation of contemporary seed and pollen dispersal rates among plant populations. Molecular Ecology Resources 12, 299-311 [abstract] [pdf]
Download ESPM user's manual (pdf file, 38 Kb)
Download ESPM software for Windows (zip file, 354 Kb)