Missing Acorns

I saw this and thought it was interesting, an article about the decrease in Acorn seeds.

Read it here:
Acorns Dissapear

Last week I was on a local college campus that normally has acorns thick enough to make a virtual carpet on the ground this time of year. There were none this year. I thought maybe someone had cleaned em all up, but now I have my suspicions. I'm going to a state park tonight that has a ton of oaks, we'll see what we can see there as well. I wonder why the oaks are't producing?

Whoops, duplicate post. Crappy crappy browser :-(

[edit on 12/1/2008 by CeltAngel]

There weren't many conkers this year either

related possibly to the lower population of bees?

reply to post by moonrat

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What is a 'conker'?
If you don't mind me asking.

Funny, just the other week I asked a friend if it was just me or does it seem like there aren't as many acorns as there used to be. Guess there may be something to it after all.

You know what, I just noticed that.
A little earlier in the year our yard is covered with nuts.
Either the squirrels worked over time or there were none!

Thats wierd.

If trees stop dropping nuts then we are screwed!

Well not directly I don't know of any information of Bees pollinating Oak Trees or such like!

However Each Oak does support over a hundred different species of Insects, and animals and Birds. So maybe as many birds are now decreasing in population that eat insects, butterflies and bees too and Nuts etc, that all come from flowers originally in the food chain it could be a factor.

The Squirells certainly seem normal this year though, and its usually them forgetting where they bury around 1/3 of their Nuts etc that can spawn new Saplings....

I have noticed it too, have one in the garden where I live now and it seemed quit sparse this year compared to a Oak of its size and age.

Not good news at all.....


Kind Regards,

Elf

I''m a tad late, but I did want to report that there were virtually no acorns at the park either. I saw a few squirrels, but no acorns. How odd is that?

Some one or thing has taken all the nuts ?
Or are the nuts just not growing.

Your kidding - you never had a conker match? Thats a nostalgic trip back to childhood:

www.bbc.co.uk...

[edit on 2-12-2008 by MCoG1980]

ive always heard that every 7 years the oaks are bare,no acorns

reply to post by R3KR

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That is the question now, isn't it? I've been trying to figure it out, but I just don't know. I'd wager it's confusing a lot of people right now.

Something like that. I posted this in another thread about earthquakes and animals but it is more appropriate here. This oak acorn squirrel thing is part of an ecosystem adapted to balance itself. The oaks will increase the acorn production to deal with increasing squirrel populations and then drop of production causeing a squirrel population crash. I don't think the oaks know to do this. It's just the oaks selected adaptation to coexist with squirrels.

Similar things happen with coyote/rabbit populations and Moose/wolf populations. There was a big study on the moose/wolf relationship on Isle Royal.

[edit on 12/3/08 by stikkinikki]

reply to post by stikkinikki

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That makes a lot of sense. Would that mean the oak trees are about to cause a squirrel population crash, or that the population has already crashed and the oak trees are now compensating?

Google is Not-surprisingly quiet on squirrel numbers.

I remember a year in Northern Virginia, maybe 1991 or so, when we had a huge squirrel population and a seeming bloodbath on the roads from run over squirrels. It was really striking and morbid. The squirrels were absolutely ravenous and mad trying to stock up on acorns. There was a dozen dead squirrels in a quarter to half a mile it was that bad. At least in this one area.

Something like that may in turn may attract more scavengers like crows and turkey vultures.



[edit on 12/3/08 by stikkinikki]

Plenty of Acorn's in SEMissouri, FYI.