Sussexboy wrote:Most people I have spoken to are commenting on the lack of acorns this year. This is a big problem for many of our woodland species who rely on the acorns as a staple food.
Forgive me speaking frankly but this just isn't the case. Oak (along with many other species i.e. beech) is a "masting" species. This means that it produces very different amounts of seed from one year to the next. To a large extent weather plays a part (more so for beech than oak) but this is a strategy to avoid predation of All their seed. If a tree produces a similar amount of seed from one year to the next, then species that eat the seed can adapt their numbers and behaviour to make use of this regular source of seed/food. If you have years where only a little amount of seed is produced, then those species for whom that seed production is important will have a population crash - due to the lack of that important food source that year. If the trees then follow that low production of seed with a year where they produce a dramatic amount of seed then those species that are important predators of that seed will be at a low population number, and consequently a larger proportion of that year's seed will escape predation.
The low production of acorns in many parts of the uk this year is Not a big problem for many of our woodland species - it is part of the natural balancing between acorn predators and oak reproduction.
(Obviously there is more to the genetic pattern of potential masting and the way in which this potential pattern interacts with the weather - but I could bore for Wales on it and don't think anyone deserves that!)
by Sussexboy » Mon Nov 05, 2012 4:08 pm