One widely accepted fitness advantage of being a masting plant (instead of just producing seeds every year) is the predator satiation. According to this mechanism, masting helps to increase seed survival through starving predators in non-mast years (famine cause the predator population to go decrease in numbers), and sparse predators are easy satiated in mast years. However, this model makes several assumptions. Importantly, it assumes that any numerical change in predator population in response to masting is delayed to the next year. In other words, it assumes that the seed bonanza makes the predator population grow, but it does not matter for the current-year seed survival as the increase is lagged to the next year. Using 17-years long datasets for three oak species in North America, we show that it not always true. Weevils that consume acorns are able to increase in numbers in mast years, up to a point in which the predator satiation no longer works. This is the main message of our brand-new Ecology study, led by Michał Bogdziewicz from our Institute, in cooperation with Rafał Zwolak, Mike Steele, Shealyn Marino (both Wilkes University), and Raul Bonal (University of Extramadura)
https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ecy.2510