Have you ever seen extra acorns than typical this yr? It seems like in all places we go, there are paths full of acorns and leaves.
A mast yr happens when timber and shrubs produce extra seeds than typical. The collective time period for fruits, nuts and seeds produced by timber known as mast, therefore the time period mast yr. A mast yr happens each 2-5 years.
Why do timber have mast years?
Mast years do not simply occur for particular person timber. It’s typical for many timber of a selected species to have a mast yr on the identical time. Scientists do not understand how this synchronisation occurs, however they do know that the climate performs a task. To have a bumper crop one yr, the temperature and rainfall should help the expansion.
One concept as to why mast years occur is predator satiation. When smaller crops occur over a interval of some years, there’s sufficient meals for the animals that rely upon them, however not sufficient for inhabitants progress, so the variety of predators stays low. When a mast yr happens, there’s extra meals than the low inhabitants of predators can eat, which signifies that plenty of the seeds are left uneaten and might germinate and develop into new timber. The massive variety of seeds additionally results in a lift within the inhabitants of the mammals that rely upon them,
For a tree to provide such an enormous amount of seeds takes plenty of power, which is why they can’t do it yearly.
Final Up to date on October 17, 2025 by Emma Vanstone
