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> And female cicadas also damage trees directly by slicing into twigs to lay their eggs. Although these two types of damage rarely kill trees, the effect is eno
by jihadjihad 3y ago
> And female cicadas also damage trees directly by slicing into twigs to lay their eggs. Although these two types of damage rarely kill trees, the effect is enough to reset the clocks of trees such as oaks, which typically undergo “mast years” in which they produce large batches of acorns every few years in synchrony. After accumulating damage during a cicada emergence, these trees produce lean harvests for two autumns in a row and then a feastlike burst of nuts two-and-a-half years after a cicada emergence, Lill says.
That's wild.
- kulahan 3y agoThose mast years, as I understand it, are tied to passenger pigeons - another species that existed in the billions. When sleeping in trees, they’d stack up 3-4 high just to have enough room. Pretty funny bird.
- jaybna 3y agoAlso, African and European swallows...
- CatWChainsaw 3y agoThis was an engaging read about a researcher trying to breed passenger pigeons back into existence. https://sammatey.substack.com/p/repost-the-weekly-anthropocene-interviews-3f5 https://sammatey.substack.com/p/repost-the-weekly-anthropoce...
- dugmartin 3y agoYou can tell the mast vs non-mast years here in Western Massachusetts (USA) by the appearances of bears in town. In good mast years you don't see any. In bad ones you can wake up with your compost bin destroyed as the bears get hungry and come down out of the hills.
- mrguyorama 3y agoMy understanding was that the main theory behind "Mast years" of trees was that it is an evolutionary adaptation to overwhelm squirrels and such so that some acorns are not eaten, and survive to grow into trees. Are they claiming that female cicadas are the direct cause of mast years? Different cicada broods have different patterns, do we see different mast year patterns in trees that correlate to the local cicada patterns?
- jihadjihad 3y ago> My understanding was that the main theory behind "Mast years" of trees was that it is an evolutionary adaptation to overwhelm squirrels and such so that some acorns are not eaten, and survive to grow into trees. That was my understanding as well. > Are they claiming that female cicadas are the direct cause of mast years? I don't think so--at least, I took it to mean that the typical 2-5 year period between mast years could be thrown off due to an active cicada year, which itself is interesting and not something I'd ever heard before. > do we see different mast year patterns in trees that correlate to the local cicada patterns? It would be a great area of research! I've got a big bur oak in my back yard, I might start a log...haha.
- Scarblac 3y agoNo, we here in the Netherlands have mast years too and we don't have any cicadas. The claim is that they change the mast year pattern for a few years after they emerge. Interestingly, I think the theory behind the periodical life cycle of the cicadas is the same as the one behind mast years -- there are no predators who have evolved to only be around every 13th year, so the number of predators around will be the same as in non-cicada years. Giving the huge amounts of cicadas in this year a good chance of survival.
- HankB99 3y agoLast year was a heavy mast year in Illinois, at least for some oaks. Under some trees it was not possible to take a step w/out stepping on several acorns. Under others the ground was bare. I never did determine if it was that different varieties have different mast years or if they just produced acorns at different times. I suspect it was more likely the former.