That's wild.
That's wild.
https://sammatey.substack.com/p/repost-the-weekly-anthropoce...
Are they claiming that female cicadas are the direct cause of mast years? Different cicada broods have different patterns, do we see different mast year patterns in trees that correlate to the local cicada patterns?
That was my understanding as well.
> Are they claiming that female cicadas are the direct cause of mast years?
I don't think so--at least, I took it to mean that the typical 2-5 year period between mast years could be thrown off due to an active cicada year, which itself is interesting and not something I'd ever heard before.
> do we see different mast year patterns in trees that correlate to the local cicada patterns?
It would be a great area of research! I've got a big bur oak in my back yard, I might start a log...haha.
The claim is that they change the mast year pattern for a few years after they emerge.
Interestingly, I think the theory behind the periodical life cycle of the cicadas is the same as the one behind mast years -- there are no predators who have evolved to only be around every 13th year, so the number of predators around will be the same as in non-cicada years. Giving the huge amounts of cicadas in this year a good chance of survival.