Intraspecific variation in masting across climate gradients is inconsistent with the environmental stress hypothesis
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Date
2025
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Abstract
Year-to-year variation in seed crop size (i.e. masting) varies strongly among populations of the same species. Understanding what causes this variation is vital, as masting affects the ability of tree species to regenerate and determines the population dynamics of a wide variety of animals. It is commonly thought that environmental stress is a key driver of masting variability. The environmental stress hypothesis posits that more marginal conditions increase the strength of masting. Using 437 time series from 19 tree species, we find that this hypothesis fails to fully explain how masting varies across marginality gradients. We expected higher interannual variation and less frequent masting events at species margins, but instead found that while mast years are indeed less frequent, the inter-annual variation was lower towards the margins. Theobserved patterns suggest that populations growing at the margins may invest more resources in low seed production years compared to their conspecifics, hedging their bets in these more challenging environments.
Description
To jest autorska wersja manuskryptu (AAM) artykuĆu opublikowanego w czasopiĆmie "Ecology".
Sponsor
European Research Cuncil, grant "ForestFuture" no. 101039066
Keywords
climate gradients, climate marginality, intraspecific variation, masting, mast seeding, reproductive strategy, alternate bearing