4.5 Conclusion
Increases in tracking studies, coupled with the advancement of tracking
technology, has led to an exponential increase in seed dispersal studies
over the past 17 years, particularly those that estimate seed dispersal
distances. This offers a step forward in understanding how changes to
landscape structure, e.g., from land-use change, can affect plant
colonisation and forest recovery through understanding the movement
patterns and behaviours of frugivores through tracking.
We see the next step forward in future seed dispersal studies as
straightforward: more studies and repetition. Long-term tracking studies
from diverse taxa are necessary to collect movement and behaviour
information. Many current tracking studies are limited by battery
consumption and tag memory and are simply capturing a small snapshot of
an individual’s life and do not consider how temporal changes (e.g.,
seasons, anomalous years) may affect movement. With longer-duration and
finer-scale data, we can begin to understand the drivers of animal
movement and the implications for seed dispersal and other ecosystem
services in a changing world.
Ultimately, seed dispersal distances can successfully help inform
restoration and conservation projects, but only if these estimations are
accurate. Only by tracking frugivores can we ensure that this
transpires. Through an understanding of seed dispersal, local
organisations can manage landscapes to increase the potential of
between-patch connectivity to encourage plant regeneration and gene
flow.