![]() ![]() White oaks generally produce acorns in roughly 2- to 2½ -year cycles, while red oaks do so every 3½ to 5½ years, they found. Trees in canopy settings produced fewer acorns than those in more open settings, suggesting light also is a factor, the researchers found. "It can be rain that occurred even three years before," Abrahamson said. They found the factors that drive bumper acorn crops vary by species. "I think you're seeing a combination of events that come together that allow a particular species in an area to do really well," said Warren Abrahamson, professor of biology emeritus at Bucknell University in Pennsylvania, who conducted the research with Jim Layne of Archbold. Then the multiyear acorn "off " cycle limits the local food supply, forcing squirrels and other seed seekers to skedaddle.Ī 2003 study at the Archbold Biological Station in Venus, Florida, found oak acorn productivity of five oak species is mostly driven by the timing of rain and other weather factors during various reproductive stages in the years leading up to the large masting events. Synchronized masting of nuts maximizes the chances of satiating all those seed-eaters, ecologists say, allowing enough acorns to escape being gobbled up, germinate and grow the next generation. Threatened Florida scrub jays survive on their ability to trace their way back to acorns they buried months earlier. So that makes them harder for hunters and wildlife viewers to find, but it also can increase "nuisance" bear complaints, as bears expand their ranges in search for food. Call it a sort of second-tier survival strategy - a way to keep seed predators at bay.ĭeer, bears and other acorn eaters will roam farther for food in years when the nuts are less plentiful. Making acorns annually would sap too much energy from the tree, scientists say.įollowing any mass masting event, oaks produce hardly any acorns for several years. A single large oak can dump that many in a mast year, biologists say.īut oaks don't play those odds every year. Only one acorn in 10,000 lives to be an oak tree. Like many trees, for oaks propagation is a numbers game. Scientists also suggest the mass acorn dumps may be something simply ingrained in the tree's genetic makeup, a hedge to guarantee germination of the next generation by flooding the ground with acorns. ![]() Others point to rain, drought and hurricanes. One theory suggests oak tree masting is triggered by ideal winds. Heavy masting years have been known to help raccoons, rats, mice and other rodents flourish. Biologists say such acorn onslaughts also bring in rodents. Other trees, such as hickory, maple, fir and birch, also show patterns of producing bumper crops of seeds.įlorida hunters and wildlife viewers keep watch for acorn mass droppings, which can herald healthy deer, duck and turkey influxes.īut there's a potential downside to all these nuts. Weather alone can't explain it, scientists say. ![]() View Gallery: Photos: Acorn onslaught hits Space Coast ![]()
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