Journal Article

The interspecific growth–mortality trade-off is not a general framework for tropical forest community structure

Gunatilleke, I. A. U. Nimal, Hsieh, Chang-Fu, Davies, Stuart J., Hart, Terese, Mohamad, Mohizah Bt, Tan, Sylvester, Ashton, Peter S., Lin, Yi Ching, Ledder, Glenn, Russo, Sabrina E., McMahon, Sean M., Condit, Richard S., Chang-Yang, Chia-Hao, Hubbell, Stephen P., Kassim, Abdul Rahman, Wright, S. Joseph, Zimmerman, Jess K., Leong, Yao Tze, Detto, Matteo, Ong, Perry, Ewango, Corneille E. N., Foster, Robin B., Bunyavejchewin, Sarayudh, Itoh, Akira, Yap, Sandra L., Makana, Jean-Remy, Thompson, Jill, Fletcher, Christine, Ediriweera, Sisira, Yamakura, Takuo, Gunatilleke, C. V. Savi, Sugiyama, Anna, Sun, I-Fang

2021

Overview

Resource allocation within trees is a zero-sum game. Unavoidable trade-offs dictate that allocation to growth-promoting functions curtails other functions, generating a gradient of investment in growth versus survival along which tree species align, known as the interspecific growth–mortality trade-off. This paradigm is widely accepted but not well established. Using demographic data for 1,111 tree species across ten tropical forests, we tested the generality of the growth–mortality trade-off and evaluated its underlying drivers using two species-specific parameters describing resource allocation strategies: tolerance of resource limitation and responsiveness of allocation to resource access. Globally, a canonical growth–mortality trade-off emerged, but the trade-off was strongly observed only in less disturbance-prone forests, which contained diverse resource allocation strategies. Only half of disturbance-prone forests, which lacked tolerant species, exhibited the trade-off. Supported by a theoretical model, our findings raise questions about whether the growth–mortality trade-off is a universally applicable organizing framework for understanding tropical forest community structure. Using demographic data for 1,111 tree species across ten tropical forests, the authors test the generality of the growth–mortality trade-off, finding that it holds in undisturbed but not disturbed forests.

• Publisher: Nature Publishing Group UK,Nature Publishing Group
• Subject: 631/158/1144 / 631/158/2450 / 631/158/2454 / 631/158/853 / Biological and Physical Anthropology / Biomedical and Life Sciences / Community structure / Demographics / Ecology / Evolutionary Biology / Forest communities / Forests / Interspecific / Life Sciences / Mortality / Paleontology / Plant species / Resource allocation / Species / Species Specificity / Tradeoffs / Trees / Tropical Climate / Tropical forests / Zero sum games / Zoology