Effectiveness of predator satiation in masting oaks is negatively affected by conspecific density.

ABSTRACT: Variation in seed availability shapes plant communities, and is strongly affected by seed predation. In some plant species, temporal variation in seed production is especially high and synchronized over large areas, which is called 'mast seeding'. One selective advantage of this phenomenon is predator satiation which posits that masting helps plants escape seed predation through starvation of predators in lean years, and satiation in mast years. However, even though seed predation can be predicted to have a strong spatial component and depend on plant densities, whether the effectiveness of predator satiation in masting plants changes according to the Janzen-Connell effect has been barely investigated. We studied, over an 8-year period, the seed production, the spatiotemporal patters of we

SUBMITTER: Bogdziewicz M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5859101 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature