In “New Phytologist” journal the article co-authored by Michał Bogdziewicz (Department of Systematic Zoology) entitled “Correlated seed failure as an environmental veto to synchronize reproduction of masting plants” was published. What Michał talks about the research:
Variable, synchronized seed production, called masting, is a widespread reproductive strategy in plants. Numerous ideas were proposed to explain this bizarre reproductive behavior of trees, but there is no consensus how the synchrony among individual plants happen. In the recent study, we explored the environmental veto hypothesis, which assumes that reproductive synchrony is driven by external factors preventing reproduction in some years, by extending the resource budget model of masting with correlated reproductive failure. We showed that reproductive failure caused by environmental veto may drive large-scale synchronization without density-dependent pollen limitation. Reproduction-inhibiting weather events are prevalent in ecosystems, making described mechanisms likely to operate in many systems.
More here: https://michalbogdziewicz.wordpress.com/