More Information
Related Jobs from ScienceCareers
|
|
Science 10 December 1999:
Vol. 286. no. 5447, p. 2041
DOI: 10.1126/science.286.5447.2041k
|
|
This Week in Science
Supra-annual synchronization of seed production, or mast-fruiting, occurs in many plant species, but its causes and adaptive significance have been a matter of much debate. In an extensive and long-term study of more than 50 species of dipterocarps--the dominant tree family in Bornean rainforests--Curran et al. (p. 2184; see the Perspective by Hartshorn and Bynum) demonstrate that seed production in these trees occurred only during the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) event and that satiation of seed predators is the probable selective force favoring mast-fruiting. Disturbingly, the authors also report a total failure of dipterocarp seedling recruitment in a major Bornean national park caused by too extensive logging in the neighboring unprotected forest. This finding implies that southeast Asian rainforests might not persist even in protected areas.
|
|
Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)
