Data for: Fire history and weather interact to determine extent and synchrony of mast-seeding in rhizomatous scrub oaks of Florida

In disturbance-prone ecosystems, fitness consequences of plant
reproductive strategies are often determined by the relative timing of
seed production and disturbance events, but the role of disturbances as
proximate drivers of seed production has been overlooked. We use long-term
data on seed production in Quercus chapmanii, Q. geminata, and Q. inopina,
rhizomatous oaks found in Southcentral Florida’s oak scrub, to investigate
the role of fire history and its interaction with weather in shaping acorn
production and its synchrony. Acorn production increased with the time
since last fire, combined with additive or interactive effects of spring
precipitation (+) or drought (–). Furthermore, multiple matrix regression
models revealed that ramet pairs with shared fire history were more
synchronous in seed production than ones that burned in different years.
Long-term trends suggest that increasingly drier spring weather, in
interaction with fire frequency, may drive a decline of seed production.
Such declines could affect the community of acorn-reliant vertebrates in
the Florida scrub, including endangered Florida scrub-jays (Aphelocoma
coerulescens). These results illustrate that fire can function as a
proximate driver of seed production in mast-seeding species, highlighting
the increasingly recognized importance of interactions among reproductive
strategies and disturbance regimes in structuring plant populations and
communities.