In 1985 one of us published a small book called Seed Ecology. It contained 42000 words and cited 334 references. It was successful in introducing a generation of ecologists to our subject, but it is now seriously out of date and has been out of print for some time. The book you are now holding contains 94000 words and cites 1117 references. Only a small part of this expansion can be attributed to covering any part of the subject in more detail; nearly all of it reflects simply the massive increase in interest in seed ecology in the past 20 years. One sign of this expansion was the launch in 1991 of the journal Seed Science Research, providing a major platform for fundamental work in seed biology, including ecology; 37 of our cited references are from that journal. More recently, the International Society for Seed Science was founded in 2000. This society sponsors meetings on all aspects of seed science, including, for the first time in 2004, a major international meeting on seed ecology. Our cited references also reflect this recent growth: 82% are from the past two decades, while 15% are post-1999.

Recent work in this field has transformed our understanding of many aspects of seed ecology, especially dispersal, storage in the soil and the ecological role of seed dormancy.