We examined post-fire recovery of two components of acorn production (percentage of bearing ramets [stems] and number of acorns per bearing ramet) for four species of oaks in southern ridge sandhill vegetation in south-central peninsular Florida. Annual counts of acorns on two white oaks (Quercus chapmanii and Q. geminata) and two red oaks (Q. laevis and Q. myrtifolia) were conducted annually (...

INTRODUCTION Although oaks dominate many forest ecosystems worldwide (Barnes and others 1998), several aspects of oak ecology remain poorly understood including oak regeneration and masting (McShea and Healy 2001). Animals that eat and disperse acorns, such as squirrels, mice, and jays may play a pivotal role in oak forest dynamics (Jones and others 1998, Ostfeld and others 1996), influencing r...

Acorns—the fruits of oaks—are a key resource for wildlife in temperate forests throughout the Northern Hemisphere. Acorns are also economically important for extensive livestock rearing, and as a staple food have supported indigenous human populations. Consequently, differences in how individual trees and populations of oaks invest in acorn production, both in terms of the size of the acorn cro...

Conservation Status—The western gray squirrel is classified as an ISSSSP Sensitive Species in Washington, and is an Oregon Conservation Strategy (OCS) Species as well as a game animal (ODFW 2006), however the species has no federal special status. In Washington, the western gray squirrel is designated as a state threatened species (WDFW 2009). Factors limiting western gray squirrel populations ...

Catifornia species. T propagation and establishment of woody seedlings are important aspects of many forest ecosystem restoration efforts. Two factors that play iraportant roles in successfully growing woody plants are the size and overall quality of the seed and whether or not the seedlings are grown in containers. In this paper, we examine how container size, acorn size and shell integrity, a...

In eastern U.S. oak forests, defoliation by gypsy moths and the risk of Lyme disease are determined by interactions among acorns, white-footed mice, moths, deer, and ticks. Experimental removal of mice, which eat moth pupae, demonstrated that moth outbreaks are caused by reductions in mouse density that occur when there are no acorns. Experimental acorn addition increased mouse density. Acorn a...

ZEMAN JAROSLAV, HRBEK JAN, DRIMAJ JAKUB, PLHAL RADIM, KAMLER JIŘÍ, ADAMEC ZDENĚK, HEROLDOVÁ MARTA. 2016. Wild Boar Impact to the Natural Regeneration of Oak and Acorn Importance in its Diet. Acta Universitatis Agriculturae et Silviculturae Mendelianae Brunensis, 64(2): 579–585. In this study, the impact of wild boar on the natural regeneration of oak and importance of acorns in the wild boar di...

Highly variable patterns of seed production (“masting”) have been hypothesized to be driven by internal dynamics of resource storage and depletion. This hypothesis predicts that if seed production is artificially reduced, then the availability of unused stored resources should result in subsequent enhancement of the seed crop.We tested this prediction in two oak species with contrasting pattern...