Mast is the fruit of forest trees and shrubs, such as acorns and other nuts.[1] The term derives from the Old English mæst, meaning the nuts of forest trees that have accumulated on the ground, especially those used historically for fattening domestic pigs, and as food resources for wildlife.[2][3] In the aseasonal tropics of Southeast Asia, entire forests, including hundreds of species of trees and shrubs, are known to mast at irregular periods of 2–12 years.[4][5]
More generally, mast is considered the edible vegetative or reproductive parts produced by woody species of plants, i.e. trees and shrubs, that wildlife and some domestic animals consume as a food source. Mast is generated in large quantities during long-interval but regularly recurring phenological events known as mast seeding or masting.[6] Such events are population-level phenomena hypothesized to be driven by a wide variety of factors, depending on the plant species involved, including availability of nutrients, economies of scale, weather patterns, and as a form of predator satiation.[7] In turn, these pulses of masting contribute to many ecosystem-level functions and dynamics.[5]
- ^ Swartz, Delbert (1971). Collegiate dictionary of botany. The Ronald Press. p. 284. OCLC 473041137.
- ^ "mast". Oxford English Dictionary (Online ed.). Oxford University Press. (Subscription or participating institution membership required.)
- ^ "mast". Middle English Compendium. University of Michigan.
- ^ Visser, Marco D.; Jongejans, Eelke; van Breugel, Michiel; Zuidema, Pieter A.; Chen, Yu-Yun; Rahman Kassim, Abdul; de Kroon, Hans (July 2011). "Strict mast fruiting for a tropical dipterocarp tree: a demographic cost-benefit analysis of delayed reproduction and seed predation: Demographic cost-benefit analysis of masting". Journal of Ecology. 99 (4): 1033–1044. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2745.2011.01825.x. hdl:2066/92377. S2CID 83983871.
- ^ a b Kelly, Dave; Sork, Victoria L. (November 2002). "Mast Seeding in Perennial Plants: Why, How, Where?". Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics. 33 (1): 427–447. doi:10.1146/annurev.ecolsys.33.020602.095433. S2CID 31807259.
- ^ Koenig, Walter D.; Knops, Johannes M. H. (January 2014). "Environmental correlates of acorn production by four species of Minnesota oaks". Population Ecology. 56 (1): 63–71. Bibcode:2014PopEc..56...63K. doi:10.1007/s10144-013-0408-z. S2CID 3355276.
- ^ Pearse, Ian S.; Koenig, Walter D.; Kelly, Dave (November 2016). "Mechanisms of mast seeding: resources, weather, cues, and selection". New Phytologist. 212 (3): 546–562. doi:10.1111/nph.14114. PMID 27477130.