Department Agraria, University of Naples Federico II, via Università 100, 80055, Portici, Italy.
DISAFA, University of Turin, Largo Braccini 2, 10095, Grugliasco, TO, Italy.
Nat Commun. 2017 Dec 20;8(1):2205. doi: 10.1038/s41467-017-02348-9.
Climate teleconnections drive highly variable and synchronous seed production (masting) over large scales. Disentangling the effect of high-frequency (inter-annual variation) from low-frequency (decadal trends) components of climate oscillations will improve our understanding of masting as an ecosystem process. Using century-long observations on masting (the MASTREE database) and data on the Northern Atlantic Oscillation (NAO), we show that in the last 60 years both high-frequency summer and spring NAO, and low-frequency winter NAO components are highly correlated to continent-wide masting in European beech and Norway spruce. Relationships are weaker (non-stationary) in the early twentieth century. This finding improves our understanding on how climate variation affects large-scale synchronization of tree masting. Moreover, it supports the connection between proximate and ultimate causes of masting: indeed, large-scale features of atmospheric circulation coherently drive cues and resources for masting, as well as its evolutionary drivers, such as pollination efficiency, abundance of seed dispersers, and natural disturbance regimes.
气候遥相关驱动大范围高度可变和同步的种子生产（结实）。区分气候振荡的高频（年际变化）和低频（年代际趋势）成分的影响将提高我们对结实作为生态系统过程的理解。利用长达一个世纪的结实观测（MASTREE 数据库）和北大西洋涛动（NAO）的数据，我们表明，在过去的 60 年中，高频夏季和春季 NAO 以及低频冬季 NAO 成分与欧洲山毛榉和挪威云杉的全大陆结实高度相关。在 20 世纪初，这种关系较弱（非稳定）。这一发现提高了我们对气候变化如何影响树木结实大范围同步的理解。此外，它支持结实的近因和远因之间的联系：实际上，大气环流的大规模特征一致地驱动结实的线索和资源，以及其进化驱动因素，如授粉效率、种子散布者的丰度和自然干扰模式。
