Nutcracker and cembra pine form an intimate life community, which has come about through a long-term adaption process (coevolution). The expressions of this adaption in the morphology, in the behavior, and in seasonal rhythm are reciprocal, so that both species benefit from each other in the community, without however being completely dependent on each other. The community cembra pine / nutcracker can thus be called a mutualism.
The ecological optimum of the nutcracker lies in the cembra pine forest. Here it achieves its highest population density and a very high dominance for corvids. It surpasses all other, sometimes ecologically similar, mammals and bird species in the efficiency of cembra pine seed dispersal. This is true within the cembra pine forest as well as outside of it and in other forest types, in the "kampfzone", and in other open land. The nutcracker has a larger range than the cembra pine and thus also allows for an effective seed dispersal on its border ranges.
The quantification of the activities of the nutcracker leaves no doubt regarding its very great importance with respect to the forest economy concerning regeneration of the cembra pine.