Using samples from eastern China (c. 25 - 41° N and 99 - 123° E) and from a common garden experiment, we investigate how Mg concentration varies with climate across multiple trophic levels. In soils, plant tissue (Oriental oak leaves and acorns), and a specialist acorn predator (the weevil Curculio davidi), Mg concentration increased significantly with different slopes from south to north, and ...

The assisted regeneration of oaks can be achieved through seeding or planting. Whereas direct seeding of acorns has several advantages over planting nursery-grown seedlings, the problem of seed predation by mammals precludes its widespread application. We investigated the potential of diesel as a mammal repellent to prevent the consumption of Holm oak acorns. We tested the effect of submerging ...

Seed production that varies greatly from year to year, known as "masting" or "mast-fruiting" behavior, is a population-level phenomenon known to exhibit geographic synchrony extending, at least in some cases, hundreds of kilometers. The two main nonexclusive hypotheses for the driver of such geographically extensive synchrony are (1) environmental factors (the Moran effect), and (2) the mutual ...

1. Fluctuations in abundance of blacklegged ticks space and time are well‐documented, but the extent to which populations fluctuate synchronously across habitat types is poorly understood. In oak forests, tick density depends on small mammal abundance, turn driven by fluctuations acorn production. It currently unknown whether forest, long understood depend largely masting events, shared with ne...

Abstract Hardwoods resprouting after wildfire or cutting develop as multistemmed clumps that gradually self-thin over time. There is increasing interest in thinning of sprouting species to accelerate the formation tree characteristics important indigenous cultural practices and wildlife such large-diameter stems, large branches, broad crowns, acorn production. We compared responses three treatm...

We investigated arboreal removal and insect damage to acorns in an undisturbed oak woodland in central coastal California. Arboreal seed removal was determined for four to eight individual Quercus lobata trees over a period of 14 years by comparing visual estimates of the acorn crop with the number of acorns caught in seed traps. Insect damage was assessed by sampling acorns from trees of all t...

Rodent and avian consumption of Holm Oak, Quercus ilex, acorns were examined in central Spain during two high-production seasons, 1990-1991 and 1993-1994, in 1 and 3 large stands and in 6 and 10 small stands (0.2-12 ha) respectively, to study the effects of vertebrate predation on seedling recruitment. Previous data indicate that wood mouse abundance is much higher in small stands. Tree size, f...

A survey of blue oak stands in four southern Sierra areas indicated there was a substantial number of seedlings and mature trees, but there were considerably fewer trees in the sapling and pole size class. These differences prompted a long-term survival study. After 6 years, 68.5 percent of the trees were still present and had grown 0.02 inches. A study of aging seedlings showed that the percen...