Mast

[openspaceman]

25 minutes ago, sime42 said:

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What's the normal Mast Year talk - that it predicts a harsh winter? Probably bollox if so, I agree. More likely that a mast year is just a reflection of a harsh summer, i.e. too hot and dry. Trees feel threatened so go all out to produce the next generation

 

Perceived wisdom is that having a super abundance of seeds one year and then a dearth of seed for a few years is so that species that feed on the seeds die down in the years of famine and then cannot expand their populations in the mast year fast enough to consume all of the glut, so some seeds are left to germinate as the next generation.

 

If you have more frequent mast years as the climate conditions change then the predator populations increase.

25 minutes ago, sime42 said:

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Can't blame them, what would we want on our death beds, other than a last cigarette?

 

 

Having avoided the death bed by not smoking I wonder what cravings are left.

 

I seem to have lost the ability to intersperse a reply into the original text.

Edited 12 hours ago by openspaceman