The first in an interview series with participants in the 5th Frugivore and Seed Dispersal International Symposium.
There are few areas of research in tropical biology more exciting and more important than seed dispersal. Seed dispersal--the process by which seeds are spread from parent trees to new sprouting ground--underpins the ecology of forests worldwide. In temperate forests, seeds are often spread by wind and water, though sometimes by animals such as squirrels and birds. But in the tropics the emphasis is far heavier on the latter, as Dr. Pierre-Michel Forget explains to mongabay.com.
"[In rainforests] a majority of plants, trees, lianas, epiphytes, and herbs, are dispersed by fruit-eating animals. […] As seed size varies from tiny seeds less than one millimetre to several centimetres in length or diameter, then, a variety of animals is required to disperse such a continuum and variety of seed size, the smaller being transported by ants and dung ...