A sixteen-year record of regional and temporal variation in the fruiting of beech (Fagus sylvatica L.) in England (1980-1995)

Seed Yield and Morphological Variations of Beechnuts in Four European Beech (Fagus sylvatica L.) Populations in Croatia

“…Nowadays, the absence of regular mast crops is one of the big problems of Croatian forestry and the necessity for assisted regeneration of beech stands is seriously raising. The interaction between climate and seed production has been confirmed by several studies [21][22][23][24]. Seed production of beech is irregular with a wide variation among years [21][22][23].…”

“…The interaction between climate and seed production has been confirmed by several studies [21][22][23][24]. Seed production of beech is irregular with a wide variation among years [21][22][23]. The mast years are strongly affected by annual climatic variability [25] and occur irregularly at intervals of between three and fifteen years [26][27][28][29].…”

Advantages of masting in European beech: timing of granivore satiation and benefits of seed caching support the predator dispersal hypothesis

“…Seed availability was estimated by counting beech seeds on the ground in October (Hilton and Packham 1997). Sampling was conducted in a stratified random manner: each site was divided into four subplots, with six (2009) or three (2010-2012) random reference markers per subplot used as sampling points.…”

Masting behaviour and dendrochronology of European beech (Fagus sylvatica L.) in southern Sweden

“…Beech masting frequency, which generally varies between 3 and 10 years, has been reported to increase in many parts of Europe over the 20th century (e.g. Holmsgaard and Bang, 1990;Hilton and Packham, 1997;Schmidt, 2006;Ö vergaard et al, 2007, and references therein). This increase may be related to the higher frequency of warm periods and to the effect of higher nitrogen availability through atmospheric deposition (Falkengren-Grerup and Eriksson, 1990;Callesen et al, 2007) or direct fertilization of forest stands (Le Tacon and Oswald, 1977).…”