Patterns of mast fruiting of common beech, sessile and common oak, Norway spruce and Scots pine in Central and Northern Europe

Nussbaumer, Anita; Waldner, Peter; Etzold, Sophia; Geßler, Arthur; Benham, Sue; Thomsen, Iben Margrete; Jørgensen, Bruno Bilde; Timmermann, Volkmar; Verstraeten, Arne; Sioen, Geert; Rautio, Pasi; Ukonmaanaho, Liisa; Skudnik, Mitja; Apuhtin, Vladislav; Braun, Sabine; Wauer, Alexandra

doi:10.1016/j.foreco.2015.12.033

Cited by 69 publications

(64 citation statements)

References 44 publications

(99 reference statements)

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“…S2). This is consistent with what has been previously reported for beech at both continental (Nussbaumer et al ., ) and regional scale (e.g. Hilton & Packham, ), and it is based on an unprecedented sample size.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Spatial patterns and broad‐scale weather cues of beech mast seeding in Europe

Hacket‐Pain²,

et al. 2017

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SummaryMast seeding is a crucial population process in many tree species, but its spatio-temporal patterns and drivers at the continental scale remain unknown .Using a large dataset (8000 masting observations across Europe for years 1950-2014) we analysed the spatial pattern of masting across the entire geographical range of European beech, how it is influenced by precipitation, temperature and drought, and the temporal and spatial stability of masting-weather correlations.Beech masting exhibited a general distance-dependent synchronicity and a pattern structured in three broad geographical groups consistent with continental climate regimes. Spearman's correlations and logistic regression revealed a general pattern of beech masting correlating negatively with temperature in the summer 2 yr before masting, and positively with summer temperature 1 yr before masting (i.e. 2T model). The temperature difference between the two previous summers (DeltaT model) was also a good predictor. Moving correlation analysis applied to the longest eight chronologies (74-114 yr) revealed stable correlations between temperature and masting, confirming consistency in weather cues across space and time.These results confirm widespread dependency of masting on temperature and lend robustness to the attempts to reconstruct and predict mast years using temperature data.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Spatial patterns and broad‐scale weather cues of beech mast seeding in Europe

Hacket‐Pain²,

et al. 2017

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“…It can be assumed that rodent outbreaks and crashes are spatially synchronized over our study area. This assumption is based on (a) the strong correlation ( r s = 0.92, p = 0.008, n = 6 years) between rodent numbers and beech mast in the previous year (beech mast data from Burkart, ), and (b) the generally strong spatial synchrony of a tree species’ mast seeding over a large geographic area (Ascoli et al, ; Koenig & Knops, ; Nussbaumer et al, ; Pucek et al, ). Hence, rodent numbers in our study sites during the same year were either high in all wood warbler territories or low in all wood warbler territories.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Numerical response of mammalian carnivores to rodents affects bird reproduction in temperate forests: A case of apparent competition?

Grendelmeier

Arlettaz

Pasinelli

2018

Ecology and Evolution

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Resource pulses such as mast seeding in temperate forests may affect interspecific interactions over multiple trophic levels and link different seed and nonseed consumers directly via predation or indirectly via shared predators. However, the nature and strength of interactions among species remain unknown for most resource pulse–driven ecosystems. We considered five hypotheses concerning the influence of resource pulses on the interactions between rodents, predators, and bird reproduction with data from northern Switzerland collected between 2010 and 2015. In high‐rodent‐abundance‐years (HRAYs), wood warbler (Phylloscopus sibilatrix) nest survival was lower than in low‐rodent‐abundance‐years, but rodents were not important nest predators, in contrast to rodent‐hunting predators. The higher proportion of nests predated by rodent‐hunting predators and their increased occurrence in HRAYs suggests a rodent‐mediated aggregative numerical response of rodent‐hunting predators, which incidentally prey on the wood warbler's ground nests. There was no evidence that rodent‐hunting predators responded behaviorally by switching prey. Lastly, nest losses caused by nonrodent‐hunting predators were not related to rodent abundance. We show that wood warblers and rodents are linked via shared predators in a manner consistent with apparent competition, where an increase of one species coincides with the decrease of another species mediated by shared predators. Mast seeding frequency and annual seed production appear to have increased over the past century, which may result in more frequent HRAYs and generally higher peaking rodent populations. The associated increase in the magnitude of apparent competition may thus at least to some extent explain the wood warbler's decline in much of Western Europe.

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“…Continued monitoring of litterfall will help to validate and explain these patterns. The large annual variation, in particular for tree species with masting behavior such as Fagus sylvatica (Nussbaumer et al, 2016), and only 11 years of observations may have obscured or over emphasized actual patterns (Table 2 and Figure S16). Potential drivers may include aging of forests, changing stand density (equations (10)-(12)), increasing forest growth (Pretzsch et al, 2014), more frequent disturbances and pathogen attacks (Seidl et al, 2014), or elevated CO 2 concentration and nitrogen deposition (Norby et al, 2010).…”

Section: Global Biogeochemical Cyclesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Quantifying Carbon and Nutrient Input From Litterfall in European Forests Using Field Observations and Modeling

Neumann

Ukonmaanaho

Johnson

et al. 2018

Global Biogeochemical Cycles

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Litterfall is a major, yet poorly studied, process within forest ecosystems globally. It is important for carbon dynamics, edaphic communities, and maintaining site fertility. Reliable information on the carbon and nutrient input from litterfall, provided by litter traps, is relevant to a wide audience including policy makers and soil scientists. We used litterfall observations of 320 plots from the pan‐European forest monitoring network of the “International Co‐operative Programme on Assessment and Monitoring of Air Pollution Effects on Forests” to quantify litterfall fluxes. Eight litterfall models were evaluated (four using climate information and four using biomass abundance). We scaled up our results to the total European forest area and quantified the contribution of litterfall to the forest carbon cycle using net primary production aggregated by bioregions (north, central, and south) and by forest types (conifers and broadleaves). The 1,604 analyzed annual litterfall observations indicated an average carbon input of 224 g C · m−2 · year−1 (annual nutrient inputs 4.49 g N, 0.32 g P, and 1.05 g K · m−2), representing a substantial percentage of net primary production from 36% in north Europe to 32% in central Europe. The annual turnover of carbon and nutrient in broadleaf canopies was larger than for conifers. The evaluated models provide large‐scale litterfall predictions with a bias less than 10%. Each year litterfall in European forests transfers 351 Tg C, 8.2 Tg N, 0.6 Tg P, and 1.9 Tg K to the forest floor. The performance of litterfall models may be improved by including foliage biomass and proxies for forest management.

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Patterns of mast fruiting of common beech, sessile and common oak, Norway spruce and Scots pine in Central and Northern Europe

Cited by 69 publications

References 44 publications

Spatial patterns and broad‐scale weather cues of beech mast seeding in Europe

Spatial patterns and broad‐scale weather cues of beech mast seeding in Europe

Numerical response of mammalian carnivores to rodents affects bird reproduction in temperate forests: A case of apparent competition?

Quantifying Carbon and Nutrient Input From Litterfall in European Forests Using Field Observations and Modeling

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