Conspecific density enhances sound seed production during high-seed years in European beech
Abstract
Climate change is reducing the supply of sound seeds available for forest regeneration, creating a need to identify management strategies that can counteract these losses. Managing local tree density offers one potential approach, as neighbouring trees can enhance pollination but also increase losses to seed predators. In masting species, which produce highly variable but synchronised seed crops, the balance between these benefits and costs may depend on annual reproductive effort. Here, using seeds collected beneath 314 European beech (Fagus sylvatica) trees across three stands in Poland and the United Kingdom over three years, we examined how conspecific density within 5–50 m buffers influenced pollination efficiency, pre-dispersal seed predation, sound seed production, and seed mass. During the high-seed year, predicted sound seed production increased almost 2-fold from low to high conspecific density, coinciding with a tendency for seed predation to decline with increasing density. In contrast, during low-seed years, seed predation increased with density, while pollination efficiency increased with density in one of two years. Mean seed mass decreased by approximately 9% with density in a high-seed year. These findings suggest that dense neighbourhoods can increase the number of sound seeds available for regeneration when their predation costs are weakened by high seed production. Future studies should determine whether greater seed supply outweighs reduced seed mass in its effects on seedling establishment and survival. Maintaining higher local densities of reproductive trees may therefore help sustain sound seed supply during mast events and partly buffer the consequences of masting breakdown for European beech regeneration.
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BibTeX
@misc{kondrat2026conspecific,
title = {{Conspecific density enhances sound seed production during high-seed years in European beech}},
author = {Katarzyna Kondrat and Jakub Szymkowiak and Maciej K. Barczyk and Urszula Eichert and Patrycja Jerzyńska and Maria Bogdańska and Jessie Josepha Foest and Patryk Ryczkowski and Andrew Hacket-Pain and Michał Bogdziewicz},
howpublished = {EcoEvoRxiv},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.32942/x2j10x},
url = {https://ecoevorxiv.org/repository/view/15676/},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Conspecific density enhances sound seed production during high-seed years in European beech
AU - Katarzyna Kondrat
AU - Jakub Szymkowiak
AU - Maciej K. Barczyk
AU - Urszula Eichert
AU - Patrycja Jerzyńska
AU - Maria Bogdańska
AU - Jessie Josepha Foest
AU - Patryk Ryczkowski
AU - Andrew Hacket-Pain
AU - Michał Bogdziewicz
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/22
PB - EcoEvoRxiv
DO - 10.32942/x2j10x
UR - https://ecoevorxiv.org/repository/view/15676/
AB - Climate change is reducing the supply of sound seeds available for forest regeneration, creating a need to identify management strategies that can counteract these losses. Managing local tree density offers one potential approach, as neighbouring trees can enhance pollination but also increase losses to seed predators. In masting species, which produce highly variable but synchronised seed crops, the balance between these benefits and costs may depend on annual reproductive effort. Here, using seeds collected beneath 314 European beech (Fagus sylvatica) trees across three stands in Poland and the United Kingdom over three years, we examined how conspecific density within 5–50 m buffers influenced pollination efficiency, pre-dispersal seed predation, sound seed production, and seed mass. During the high-seed year, predicted sound seed production increased almost 2-fold from low to high conspecific density, coinciding with a tendency for seed predation to decline with increasing density. In contrast, during low-seed years, seed predation increased with density, while pollination efficiency increased with density in one of two years. Mean seed mass decreased by approximately 9% with density in a high-seed year. These findings suggest that dense neighbourhoods can increase the number of sound seeds available for regeneration when their predation costs are weakened by high seed production. Future studies should determine whether greater seed supply outweighs reduced seed mass in its effects on seedling establishment and survival. Maintaining higher local densities of reproductive trees may therefore help sustain sound seed supply during mast events and partly buffer the consequences of masting breakdown for European beech regeneration.
ER -