In Fagus, full-mast seeding years are invariably followed by at least one non-mast year. Both flower and leaf primordia develop during the summer within the same winter buds. Flower bud initiation occurs when the N content of developing seeds is increasing rapidly. We hypothesized that competition for nitrogen (N) between developing seeds and buds limits flower primordium formation in mast years and, hence, limits seed production in years following mast years. We tested this hypothesis in three Fagus crenata Blume forests at elevations of 550, 900 and 1500 m. Bud N concentration (N con), amount of N per bud (N bud) and dry mass per bud (DM) were compared between a mast year (2005) and the following non-mast year (2006), and between winter buds containing both leaf and flower primoridia (BF), which were formed during the non-mast year, and winter buds containing leaf primordia only (BL), which were formed in both mast and non-mast years. In addition, leaf numbers per shoot corresponding to the analyzed buds were counted, and the effect of masting on litter production was analyzed by quantifying the amounts of litter that fell in the years 2004 to 2007. The dry mass and N content of BF formed in 2006 by trees at both 550 and 1500 m were 2.1-3.4-fold higher than the corresponding amounts in BL, although the numbers of leaves per current-year shoot in 2007 that developed from the two bud types in the same individuals did not differ significantly. These results indicate that more N and carbohydrate are expended in producing BF than in producing BL. The amount of litter from reproductive organs produced in the mast year was similar to the amount of leaf litter at 900 and 1500 m, but three times as much at 550 m. Leaf numbers per shoot were significantly lower at all elevations in the mast year than in the non-mast years (and the amount of leaf litter at 550 and 1500 m tended to be lower in the mast year than in the non-mast years. In conclusion, preferential allocation of resources to seeds in the mast year reduced the availability of resources for flower primordium formation, and this may have accounted for the poor seed production in the following non-mast year.

It is generally assumed that the production of a large crop of seeds depletes stores of resources and that these take more than 1 year to replenish; this is accepted, theoretically, as the proximate mechanism of mast seeding (resource budget model). However, direct evidence of resource depletion in masting trees is very rare. Here, we trace seasonal and inter-annual variations in nitrogen (N) concentration and estimate the N storage pool of individuals after full masting of Fagus crenata in two stands. In 2005, a full masting year, the amount of N in fruit litter represented half of the N present in mature leaves in an old stand (age 190-260 years), and was about equivalent to the amount of N in mature leaves in a younger stand (age 83-84 years). Due to this additional burden, both tissue N concentration and individual N storage decreased in 2006; this was followed by significant replenishment in 2007, although a substantial N store remained even after full masting. These results indicate that internal storage may be important and that N may be the limiting factor for fruiting. In the 4 years following full masting, the old stand experienced two moderate masting events separated by 2 years, whilst trees in the younger stand did not fruit. This different fruiting behavior may be related to different "costs of reproduction" in the full masting year 2005, thus providing more evidence that N may limit fruiting. Compared to the non-fruiting stand, individuals in the fruiting stand exhibited an additional increase in N concentrations in roots early in the 2007 growing season, suggesting additional N uptake from the soil to supply resource demand. The enhanced uptake may alleviate the N storage depletion observed in the full masting year. This study suggests that masting affects N cycle dynamics in mature Fagus crenata and N may be one factor limiting fruiting.

Biotic homogenization has been reported worldwide. Although simplification of communities across space is often significant at larger scales, it could also occur at the local scale by changing biotic interactions. This study aimed to elucidate local community processes driving biotic homogenization of soil faunal communities, and the possibility of biotic re-differentiation. We recorded species of oribatid mites in litter and soil layers along a gradient of forest conversion from monoculture larch plantation to primary forests in central Japan. We collected data for functional traits of the recorded species to quantify functional diversity. Then we quantified their taxonomic/functional turnover. Litter diversity was reduced in the larch-dominated stands, leading to habitat homogenization. Consequently, litter communities were biologically homogenized and differentiated in the plantations and in the natural forest, respectively. Turnover of functional traits for litter communities was lower and higher than expected by chance in the plantations and in the natural stand, respectively. This result suggests that the dominant assembly process shifts from limiting similarity to habitat filtering along the forest restoration gradient. However, support for such niche-based explanations was not observed for communities in the soil layer. In the monocultures, functional diversity expected from a given regional species pool significantly decreased for litter communities but not for those in the soil layer. Such discrepancy between communities in different layers suggests that communities more exposed to anthropogenic stresses are more vulnerable to the loss of their functional roles. Our study explains possible community processes behind the observed patterns of biological organization, which can be potentially useful in guiding approaches for restoring biodiversity.

Mast seeding, the synchronous intermittent production of large seed crops in populations of perennial plants, is a widespread and widely studied phenomenon. Economy of scale has been demonstrated to provide the ultimate selection factor driving the evolution of masting, for example, in terms of the predatorsatiation and pollination-efficiency hypotheses; however, its physiological mechanism is still poorly understood. The resource budget (RB) model assumes that an individual plant requires more resources to flower and fruit than it gains in a year, and therefore only flowers when a specific threshold amount of stored resources is surpassed. Although the RB models have been well explored theoretically, including for resource depletion and pollen coupling, empirical data to support these assumptions are still disputed. Here, we explore the extent to which the RB model applies to masting tree species, focusing on the dynamics of carbon and nitrogen resources in natural temperate forests. There is little empirical evidence that plants use carbohydrates stored over several years to produce fruits; however, nitrogen stores in temperate trees are more commonly depleted after masting. We review the internal nitrogen cycle including resorption during leaf senescence, storage and remobilization, discussing the effect of masting on these processes. Overall, carbohydrates and nitrogen are clearly involved in the proximate mechanisms driving mast seeding, but the determinant resource seems to be species specific.

These results suggest that carbohydrate storage has a stronger influence on resprouting in Quercus crispula than N storage. However, the size of the resprouting shoot was positively correlated with the amount of both N and TNC in roots. The level of N storage is, therefore, also important for the growth of resprouting shoots.