Resource availability alters breeding strategies in a small mammal community.

Following a resource pulse, animals may finance reproduction by consuming concurrently available resources (income breeding) or by storing resources for future reproduction (capital breeding). Understanding how these reproductive strategies are used is important for determining the ecological mechanisms that structure timing of reproduction and that drive interannual population fluctuations in animals. We gathered a reproductive dataset for five small mammal species over a 12-year period in Northeastern USA during which six masting events of American beech (Fagus grandifolia) and eastern hemlock (Tsuga canadensis) occurred.