Movement of individual organisms is fundamental to life and quilts our planet with a diversity of landscapes. We propose in this symposium to introduce Movement Ecology, as an identified subfield of Ecology, to stimulate the development of general theories that integrate across gaps maintained by the current separation of research efforts with respect to modes of movement and types of organisms. Such theories will enhance our ability to quantify movement and to characterize resultant spatial and temporal patterns of the trajectories of individuals, as well as the principles leading to pattern formation (see session justification). We invited a diverse international group of speakers—representing a wide range of expertise including physicists, mathematicians, theoretical ecologists, plant ecologists and ethologists—to present the first effort to unify the study of the patterns and mechanisms of organism movements, their causes and consequences. The symposium will begin with a short introduction, end with a general synthesis, and will include three thematic topics addressing the patterns, mechanisms and consequences of organism movement. The first part of the symposium includes two papers that use basic principles of statistical mechanics to draw conclusions about general patterns of movements by a large variety of foraging animals. The second part of the symposium includes four papers that focus on the general mechanisms of movement of different types.