Spatiotemporal dynamics of plant seed production and potential seeding mechanisms is one important process that determines population dynamics and community construction. 

The phenomenon of mast seeding - the seed production of perennial plant is synchronous within a year but highly variable among years - appeared in many plant species.

Increased pollination efficiency and predator satiation are supposed as two predominant selective pressures for the evolution of mast seeding and weather conditions are proximate cause.

In temperate forest, many dominant species show mast seeding phenomenon. The lack of long-term data monitoring of seed production at community level hindered us in understanding and prediction of the responses of plant community to special reproduction pressures and climate change.

Dr. WANG Yunyun and other colleagues in the research group of Natural Forest Ecology, Institute of Applied Ecology (IAE) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences analyzed seed rain data of 20 woody plant species collected from the big sample plot of 25 hectares Deciduous-Korean Pine Forest on Changbai Mountain in successive 8 years for variations and synchronism of seeding, then they tested the pollination hypothesis and the proximate effect of meteorological factors.

The results confirmes the pollination efficiency hypothesis and the proximate effect of meteorological factors.

It also shows that the dynamics of seed production at community level of the temperate deciduous Korean pine forest is determined both by the selective pressure (pollination efficiency) in the evolution process and the proximate effect of meteorological factors. However, the predator satiation shows only weak effect in the 8 years.

The results have been published in Journal of Vegetation Science entitled "Variation and Synchrony of Tree Species Mast Seeding in an Old-growth Temperate Forest".

This work was supported by a special project of National Key Research and Development Program of China, CAS International Cooperation Project and NNSFC.