Natural disturbances and masting: from mechanisms to fitness consequences

The timing of seed production and release is highly relevant for successful plant reproduction. Ecological disturbances, if synchronized with reproductive effort, can increase the chances of seeds and seedlings to germinate and establish. This can be especially true under variable and synchronous seed production (masting). Several observational studies have reported worldwide evidence for co-occurrence of disturbances and seed bumper crops in forests. Here, we review the evidence for interaction between disturbances and masting in global plant communities; we highlight feedbacks between these two ecological processes and posit an evolutionary pathway leading to the selection of traits that allow trees to synchronize seed crops with disturbances. Finally, we highlight relevant questions to be tested on the functional and evolutionary relationship between disturbances and masting. This article is part of the theme issue ‘The ecology and evolution of synchronized seed production in plants’.

• Publication year

  2021

• Venue

  Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Biological Sciences

• Publication date

  2021-10-18

• Fields of study

  Biology, Medicine, Environmental Science

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.1098/rstb.2020.0384PMID 34657468PMCID PMC8520777
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar, PubMed

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

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