Mast (botany) Mast seeding is defined as the highly variable production of fruit by a population. These intermittent pulses of food resources drive ecosystem-level functions and forest dynamics. The difference between a mast seeding year and a non-mast seeding year can be thousands of acorns, hickory nuts, beech nuts, etc. Mast seeding dominantly occurs in wind-pollinated tree species, but has also been observed in grasses and Dipterocarps. Masting, in the strict sense of the term, occurs only in monocarpic (or semelparous) species, whose members reproduce only once during their lifetime, then die. Hypothesis for the evolution of mast seeding can broadly be
Natural beech wood forest type is able to sustain and replace itself on its own - i.e. if the climatic and geological conditions for a given forest type are present or not. These conditions can be objectively determined, and does not depend on the "test of time" exclusively. The term "semi-natural" is sometimes used to describe any natural woodland, that is not strictly primeval in origin. Natural beech wood Natural beech wood is a beech wood, that is able to replenish and sustain itself on its own. Beech is a valued timber, but most beech woods requires human intervention to replace old trees,