Acorns and mast years

From: Steve Marak samarak at arachne.uark.edu> on 2000.11.10 at 16:02:24(5670) I read an article on this phenomenon of very poor acorn (or other seed) production in some years and massive production in others. Apparently it has been well known empirically for a long time. Heavy production years are called "mast years" (mast being a term for acorns and other such fruit). The article I read suggested it was a naturally selected "strategy" for ensuring that at least in some years, so much seed would be produced that predators could hardly get it all. The question for the author(s) was what was the signal that coordinated heavy production in an area? Was it simply favorable growing conditions the previous year, or was there some communication, presumably chemical, involved? I'm sorry that I don't recall which publication I saw this in; we get so many. Steve +More -- Steve Marak -- samarak@arachne.uark.edu

From: SelbyHort at aol.com on 2000.11.11 at 19:10:29(5676) No shortage of acorns in Vermont! It was a very wet summer here. To further Steve's message: I once heard a talk at a conference about tree flowering and fruiting in Mexican tropical forests. Via a long term study, they have mapped heavy flowering and fruiting events in a regular cycle that tightly corresponds to the El Nino cycles. Many Meso American and Caribbean tropical forests grow in areas with distinct wet and dry seasons (similar to Florida's climate). Heavy tree flowering and fruiting is noted after a dryer than normal "wet" season. Seems in the dry sunny years, the forests have more sun, less cloud cover and therefore produce more leaves and build up reserves. Then trees flower and fruit more heavily the next year. During cloudy, rainy cycles, flowering and fruiting is greatly reduced because there are fewer sunny days. This 6-7 year cycle may indeed also correspond with Julius' mention of a 6 year cycle for owls in Trinidad. Donna Atwood +More In a message dated 11/10/2000 11:03:06 AM Eastern Standard Time, samarak@arachne.uark.edu writes: << The article I read suggested it was a naturally selected "strategy" for ensuring that at least in some years, so much seed would be produced that predators could hardly get it all. The question for the author(s) was what was the signal that coordinated heavy production in an area? Was it simply favorable growing conditions the previous year, or was there some communication, presumably chemical, involved? >> >From Julius Boos: <>

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