LTREB: Phenology and Masting in California Oaks

该提案将调查的近因导致高度可变和空间同步的种子生产风授粉，专性异交树种，山谷橡树（栎）。这种现象，被称为mast-fruiting或masting行为，被认为是由环境强迫或授粉耦合驱动的。环境强迫假定树木利用天气作为线索，以确定它们在特定年份用于繁殖的资源。花粉偶联假设花粉是有限的，受精效率取决于附近树木的花粉生产。本提案将使用Q.在全州范围内收集的lobata，结合个人物候学，小气候，总体花粉丰度和雌花命运的详细数据。 该项目将收集全州橡子生产的数据，橡子是一种高度可变的食物资源，对游戏和非游戏野生动物都很重要。该项目的重点是一个相当大的保护利益，因为发展，栖息地转换，明显缺乏再生，对未来气候变化的敏感性树种。这里提出的工作将有助于强调Q的关键作用。小叶栎和橡树林地一般都是对野生动物和生态系统功能都很重要的自然资源。从这项研究中产生的关于林木种子生产的广泛数据集将以电子方式提供，首先以摘要形式提供，最终作为元数据提供给未来有兴趣使用这些数据来检查模式和测试关于桅杆行为的生态学和进化的假设的研究人员。

The proposal will investigate the proximate factors leading to highly variable and spatially synchronized seed production in a wind-pollinated, obligate outcrossing tree species, the valley oak (Quercus lobata). This phenomenon, known as mast-fruiting or masting behavior, is believed to be driven by either environmental forcing or pollination coupling. Environmental forcing postulates that trees use weather as a cue to determine the resources they devote to reproduction in a particular year. Pollen coupling assumes that pollen is limited and that fertilization efficiency is dependent on pollen production by nearby trees. This proposal will test these hypotheses using long-term data on acorn production by Q. lobata collected on a statewide scale combined with detailed data on individual phenology, microclimate, overall pollen abundance, and the fate of female flowers. The project will collect statewide data on acorn production, a highly variable food resource important to both game and non-game wildlife. The project focuses on a tree species of considerable conservation interest because of development, habitat conversion, apparent lack of regeneration, and susceptibility to future climate change. The work proposed here will help to emphasize the key role Q. lobata and oak woodlands in general play as a natural resource important both to wildlife and to ecosystem function. The extensive dataset on seed production by forest trees that will result from this research will be made electronically available, first in summary form and ultimately as metadata, for future researchers interesting in using the data to examine patterns and test hypotheses regarding the ecology and evolution of masting behavior.