Long-term annual seed production data of individual European beech (Fagus sylvatica) trees in the Netherlands

Seed production of European beech (Fagus sylvatica) is highly variable between years and synchronised between individual trees (i.e., masting), creating years with high seed crops, commonly separated by one or more years with little or no seed production. This pulsed reproduction has selective benefits for the trees, as it creates a cycle of predator satiation and starvation, through which masting drives population dynamics of dependent species. Masting is sensitive to climate change, making long-term data on annual seed production valuable for understanding changes in the masting patterns and their effects on seed consumers. This study presents a long-term dataset of 50 years containing annual, ground-plot beechnut counts for 81 individual trees in the Netherlands. Time series length of individual trees ranges from one year to the whole study period, with 21 trees having at least 40 years of data. Beechnut counts are categorized in sound, empty and predated, complemented by gross and net weights of individual nuts, allowing for detailed analyses of masting patterns and annual variation in food abundance for seed predators.