Fruiting strategies of perennial plants: a resource budget model to couple mast seeding to pollination efficiency and resource allocation strategies

Masting, a breeding strategy common in perennial plants, is defined by seed production that is highly variable over years and synchronized at the population level. Resource budget models (RBMs) proposed that masting relies on two processes: (i) the depletion of plant reserves following high fruiting levels, which leads to marked temporal fluctuations in fruiting; and (ii) outcross pollination that synchronizes seed crops among neighboring trees. We revisited the RBM approach to examine the extent to which masting could be impacted by the degree of pollination efficiency, by taking into account various logistic relationships between pollination success and pollen availability. To link masting to other reproductive traits, we split the reserve depletion coefficient into three biological parameters related to resource allocation strategies for flowering and fruiting. While outcross pollination is considered to be the key mechanism that synchronizes fruiting in RBMs, our model counterintuit...种群同步结实（masting）是多年生植物中常见的繁殖策略，其核心特征为年度间种子产量波动剧烈，且在种群水平上呈现同步性。资源预算模型（Resource Budget Models, RBMs）提出，种群同步结实依赖于两个过程：（i）高结实水平后植物储备的消耗，该过程会导致结实过程出现显著的时间波动；（ii）异花授粉（outcross pollination），可使邻近树木的种子产量实现同步。本研究重新采用资源预算模型框架，通过考量授粉成功率与花粉可获得性之间的多种逻辑斯蒂关系，探究授粉效率高低对种群同步结实的影响程度。为建立种群同步结实与其他繁殖性状之间的关联，本研究将储备消耗系数拆分为三个与开花和结实资源分配策略相关的生物学参数。尽管在传统资源预算模型中，异花授粉被视为实现结实同步的核心机制，但本研究的模型却得出了与直觉相悖的……