The report on the research by Dr Michał Bogdziewicz from the Faculty of Biology of the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań was published in the scientific journal Current Biology. The scientist studied the effect of natural selection on the formation of seed years, i.e. synchronized inter-annual variability in seed production in plants.
The research allowed for the first time to confirm the hypothesis of how beech trees “determine” when the seed year will happen and how this selection takes place.
– The first step is the sensitivity of trees to the so-called “weather indicator”, which in this case is warm summer in the year before flowering. Sensitive trees produce seeds only when this tip occurs. Many trees respond to the same stimulus so that the seed years occur at the same time for all of them. In other words, sensitivity to the weather indicator ensures both inter-annual variability and timing, – says the scientist.
