Company Announcement - The School of Life Sciences at the University of KwaZulu-Natal has been involved in the organisation of the 6th International Symposium Workshop on Frugivores and Seed Dispersal, to be held from the 21st to the 26th June 2015 at Alpine Heath in the Northern Drakensberg, KwaZulu-Natal. The theme for the conference is ‘Searching for commonality in frugivory and seed dispersal: merging community ecological dynamics with phylogeny across different biomes.’

Professor Colleen Downs, chairperson of the local organising committee for the conference, said that the aim of the conference is to bring together biologists who specialise in aspects of frugivores (creatures that eat fruit predominantly) and their seed dispersal mechanisms. This branch is important in biology because frugivores play a vital role in the dispersal of seeds which is essential to what Downs describes as the promotion of community and ecosystem functioning and biodiversity. In a world where habitat loss is speeding up extinction rates, it is necessary for biologists to intensify their investigations into ecological systems to understand and combat this phenomenon.

At the conference, researchers from around the world will present their work on focal topics on frugivores and seed dispersal, such as defaunation and species invasions. According to Downs, some of  the interdisciplinary conservation research presented will show a landscape perspective with emphasis on structure and dynamics of ecological interactions through seed dispersal mechanisms, which will also be dealt with. In total, 28 countries will be represented at the conference by researchers who are presenting their work, either via a poster or a talk. The conference will also give students the chance to make presentations and will include a mid-conference tour to Nambiti Game Reserve for an African big five game viewing experience.

Talks at the conference will incorporate work on a variety of flora and fauna, with the latter including taxa from flightless crickets to flying birds and mammals, and from scatter hoarding rodents to megaherbivores. Presentations will include mention of climate change effects, applications of movement ecology, defaunation consequences, and pollination systems through chemical ecology of  Downs expressed gratitude to the plenary speakers, symposia chairs, funders of the conference, the scientific committee, the local organising committee, the management and staff of Alpine Heath, Andrew de Klerk of Quartex, Prenisha Rajdev, Paige Potter, Mark and Tracey Marshall of Ndaka Safari Lodge, Preshnee Singh, Vicki Hooper and Lliane Bratherton who all contributed towards the conference implementation.