In a new study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, we show that in temperate European forests, years of seed failure are more strongly synchronized over space than mast years with high seed production. Using 36 years of data from over 400 sites and seven dominant tree species, we demonstrate that regional coherence in tree reproduction is driven primarily by synchronized seed scarcity, not abundance. Among-species synchrony was largely local, suggesting that forest diversity buffers food webs against continent-scale boom–bust dynamics. Our findings highlight the ecological importance of widespread reproductive failure and have implications for wildlife dynamics, forest regeneration, and seed sourcing under climate change. Read the paper here!
PNAS: masting synchrony dominated by seed scarcity
