The Relationship Between Maturation Size and Maximum Tree Size From Tropical to Boreal Climates.
The fundamental trade-off between current and future reproduction has long been considered to result in a tendency for species that can grow large to begin reproduction at a larger size. Due to the prolonged time required to reach maturity, estimates of tree maturation size remain very rare and we lack a global view on the generality and the shape of this trade-off. Using seed production from five continents, we estimate tree maturation sizes for 486 tree species spanning tropical to boreal climates. Results show that a species' maturation size increases with maximum size, but in a non-proportional way: the largest species begin reproduction at smaller sizes than would be expected if maturation were simply proportional to maximum size. Furthermore, the decrease in relative maturation size is steepest in cold climates. These findings on maturation size drivers are key to accurately represent forests' responses to disturbance and climate change.
Duke Scholars
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Related Subject Headings
- Tropical Climate
- Trees
- Reproduction
- Forests
- Ecology
- Climate Change
- 4104 Environmental management
- 4102 Ecological applications
- 3103 Ecology
- 0603 Evolutionary Biology
Citation
Published In
DOI
EISSN
ISSN
Publication Date
Volume
Issue
Start / End Page
Related Subject Headings
- Tropical Climate
- Trees
- Reproduction
- Forests
- Ecology
- Climate Change
- 4104 Environmental management
- 4102 Ecological applications
- 3103 Ecology
- 0603 Evolutionary Biology