No seed size–number trade-off in European beech: climate governs investment per seed

Mast-seeding trees can vary seed output by orders of magnitude among years, but it remains unclear whether high seed production comes at the cost of reduced per-seed investment, as predicted by fixed-budget allocation models. We quantified individual seed production with seed mass in European beech across 2,792 trees and 123 populations spanning the species’ European range and quantified seed protein and lipid content in a subset of 35 populations. Seed mass showed a positive association with seed production, with seeds from high-seeding years being 14% heavier than those from low-seeding years, providing no evidence for a seed size–number trade-off and instead supporting variable reproductive allocation. In contrast, seed protein content decreased by 31% with increasing seed production, whereas lipid content increased (by 14%), indicating that nitrogen becomes constraining at high reproductive output while carbon-based provisioning is maintained. Climate further structured provisioning: seed mass and protein content were the lowest at climatic range margins, being 28% and 32% lower, respectively, than at the center of the climatic range. Together, these results show that European beech can increase seed output without reducing per-seed biomass, but that nitrogen limitation emerges under high seed production and that climatic constraints reduce both seed size and protein content toward range edges. This identifies a pathway that may strengthen regeneration bottlenecks at both trailing and leading margins, especially as climate warming intensifies.

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Publication Details

Published
2026-02-13
DOI
https://doi.org/10.32942/x2bw8q
Primary Topic
Animal Ecology and Behavior Studies
Type
article
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article

No seed size–number trade-off in European beech: climate governs investment per seed

Juliane Kaiser, Janna Wambsganss, Wolfgang Schmidt, Gavriil Spyroglou et al.
Animal Ecology and Behavior Studies
article

No seed size–number trade-off in European beech: climate governs investment per seed

Juliane Kaiser, Janna Wambsganss, Wolfgang Schmidt, Gavriil Spyroglou, Georg Gratzer, Anđelina Gavranović, Povilas Žemaitis, Evangelia Korakaki, Michał Bogdziewicz, Stanislav Vacek, Cătălin Constantin Roibu, Francesco Mezzavilla, Christodoulos I. Sazeides, Urszula Eichert, Jakub Szymkowiak, Francesco Chianucci, Flavia Sicuriello, Valentin Journé, Katarzyna Kondrat, Thomas Caignard, Anders Mårell, Nickolay Tsvetanov, Qingmin Han, Tomaž Adamič, Marieke van der Maaten‐Theunissen, Zdeněk Vacek, Thomas A. Nagel, Jovana Devetaković, Věra Fadrhonsová, Marcos Fernández‐Martínez, Timo Pampuch, Martina Mund, Angelika Koelbl, Ewa Marzena Kalemba, Juliane Stolz, Lukas Petrulaitis, Jan Holík, Jessie Foest, Tzvetan Zlatanov, Ciprian Palaghianu, Ernst van der Maaten, Any Mary Petritan, Anita Nussbaumer, Giada Bertini, Catalin Petritan, Maria Bogdańska, Roger Grau-Andrés, Samuel Venner, Marie-Claude Venner, Andrew Hacket-Pain, Arne Verstraeten, Samuel Egan, Maciej Barczyk, Bruno De Cinti, Steffen Schulz, Robert Weigel, Patrycja Jerzyńska, Bernhard Schuldt, Vladan Popović, Mikołaj Lula, Nikos Nanos, Angus Wilkinson, Georges Kunstler, Davide Ascoli, Catherine Massonnet, Martin Wilmking, Raul Bonal, Nikolaos Fyllas
article en

Abstract

Mast-seeding trees can vary seed output by orders of magnitude among years, but it remains unclear whether high seed production comes at the cost of reduced per-seed investment, as predicted by fixed-budget allocation models. We quantified individual seed production with seed mass in European beech across 2,792 trees and 123 populations spanning the species’ European range and quantified seed protein and lipid content in a subset of 35 populations. Seed mass showed a positive association with seed production, with seeds from high-seeding years being 14% heavier than those from low-seeding years, providing no evidence for a seed size–number trade-off and instead supporting variable reproductive allocation. In contrast, seed protein content decreased by 31% with increasing seed production, whereas lipid content increased (by 14%), indicating that nitrogen becomes constraining at high reproductive output while carbon-based provisioning is maintained. Climate further structured provisioning: seed mass and protein content were the lowest at climatic range margins, being 28% and 32% lower, respectively, than at the center of the climatic range. Together, these results show that European beech can increase seed output without reducing per-seed biomass, but that nitrogen limitation emerges under high seed production and that climatic constraints reduce both seed size and protein content toward range edges. This identifies a pathway that may strengthen regeneration bottlenecks at both trailing and leading margins, especially as climate warming intensifies.

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