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
Beech bark disease fungus), remove heavily infested/dying trees and then treat sprouts from infested trees with herbicides. The residual, resistant parent trees are future sources of resistant seed/sprouts. If herbicides are not a viable option, cut all suckers within 1.5 m of a BBD-killed beech tree. Resistance to beech bark disease in a stand may be 1%-5% of trees or more, with significant regional variation. A study of 35 sites in three Canadian provinces found resistance rates ranging from 2.2%-5.7%. Beech bark disease Beech bark disease is a disease that causes mortality and defects in beech trees in the eastern United States and