Rewiew on mast seedlings
A review by Michal Bogdziewicz and co-authors published in Annual Reviews in Ecology, Evolution, and Systematics explores the phenomenon of mast seeding, where perennial plants produce highly variable and synchronized seed crops. It synthesizes current knowledge on the mechanisms plants use to achieve this variability, from hypersensitivity to weather cues to interactions between pollination, fruit maturation, and internal resource dynamics. It highlights that variation in flowering effort, rather than fruit maturation, is often the main driver of masting, and that weather cues synchronize reproduction more strongly than pollen limitation. The review also considers emerging genetic insights, challenges long-held assumptions about the geographic scope of masting, and examines how climate change and management contexts may reshape these patterns.
Read the paper: https://doi.org/10.1146/