摘要
The study of frugivory and seed dispersal is both excit-ing and challenging because it integrates research from multiple biological disciplines,including zoology,botany,physiology,behavioral ecology,evolution,conservation,and population and community ecology.At the center of these investigations is one of the most important mutual-istic relationships hypothesized to organize and maintain diversity in terrestrial ecosystems:the movement of plant seeds by fruit and seed-eating animals(Bascompte&Jordano 2007).Although recent studies on the seed dis-persal process have advanced the breadth and depth of our understanding of this keystone interaction,many ques-tions are still unanswered.A clear synthesis and theoreti-cal framework for integrating what we do know also re-mains elusive.Moreover,the imperative to better under-stand the movement of organisms in the face of human-induced global changes has sparked an additional need for seed dispersal studies(Wang&Smith 2002;Bullock&Nathan 2008;Nathan et al.2008).
