The Percentage of Trees Bearing Cones as a Predictor for Annual Longleaf Pine Cone Production

The U.S. Forest Service has monitored longleaf pine cone production at sites throughout the southeastern United States for over 60 years. Data from multi-decadal surveys have supported our understanding of variability stand-level as it relates to environmental and ecological processes, more broadly, how operates a masting species. Cones are counted each spring using visual that follow standard protocol. Rapid mast assessments been proposed in literature an alternative traditional methods, yet these approaches not examined pine. In this study, I compared average (using method) percentage trees bearing cones (rapid assessment) understand relationship between two measurements. 29 years data 18 cone-monitoring containing 234 trees. Using simple linear models, discovered explained 58–94% variance log-average across all sites. One-way ANOVA analysis revealed crops required successful regeneration (25 + per tree) occurred when exceeded 90%, results study underscore utility 90% threshold determining crop. While cone-count methods should be abandoned, advocate use rapid cone-crop proxy approach is suitable.