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Tom Pugh

Thomas Pugh

Senior lecturer

Tom Pugh

The pace of life for forest trees

Author

  • Lalasia Bialic-Murphy
  • Robert M. McElderry
  • Adriane Esquivel-Muelbert
  • Johan van den Hoogen
  • Pieter A. Zuidema
  • Oliver L. Phillips
  • Edmar Almeida de Oliveira
  • Patricia Alvarez Loayza
  • Esteban Alvarez-Davila
  • Luciana F. Alves
  • Vinícius Andrade Maia
  • Simone Aparecida Vieira
  • Lidiany Carolina Arantes da Silva
  • Alejandro Araujo-Murakami
  • Eric Arets
  • Julen Astigarraga
  • Fabrício Baccaro
  • Timothy Baker
  • Olaf Banki
  • Jorcely Barroso
  • Lilian Blanc
  • Damien Bonal
  • Frans Bongers
  • Kauane Maiara Bordin
  • Roel Brienen
  • Marcelo Brilhante de Medeiros
  • José Luís Camargo
  • Felipe Carvalho Araújo
  • Carolina V. Castilho
  • Wendeson Castro
  • Victor Chama Moscoso
  • James Comiskey
  • Flávia Costa
  • Sandra Cristina Müller
  • Everton Cristo de Almeida
  • Antonio Carlos Lôla da Costa
  • Vitor de Andrade Kamimura
  • Fernanda de Oliveira
  • Jhon Del Aguila Pasquel
  • Géraldine Derroire
  • Kyle Dexter
  • Anthony Di Fiore
  • Louis Duchesne
  • Thaise Emílio
  • Camila Laís Farrapo
  • Sophie Fauset
  • Federick C. Draper
  • Ted R. Feldpausch
  • Rafael Flora Ramos
  • Thomas A.M. Pugh
Show all

Summary, in English

Tree growth and longevity trade-offs fundamentally shape the terrestrial carbon balance. Yet, we lack a unified understanding of how such trade-offs vary across the world's forests. By mapping life history traits for a wide range of species across the Americas, we reveal considerable variation in life expectancies from 10 centimeters in diameter (ranging from 1.3 to 3195 years) and show that the pace of life for trees can be accurately classified into four demographic functional types. We found emergent patterns in the strength of trade-offs between growth and longevity across a temperature gradient. Furthermore, we show that the diversity of life history traits varies predictably across forest biomes, giving rise to a positive relationship between trait diversity and productivity. Our pan-latitudinal assessment provides new insights into the demographic mechanisms that govern the carbon turnover rate across forest biomes.

Department/s

  • LU Profile Area: Nature-based future solutions
  • MERGE: ModElling the Regional and Global Earth system
  • BECC: Biodiversity and Ecosystem services in a Changing Climate
  • Dept of Physical Geography and Ecosystem Science

Publishing year

2024-10-04

Language

English

Pages

92-98

Publication/Series

Science (New York, N.Y.)

Volume

386

Issue

6717

Document type

Journal article

Publisher

American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)

Topic

  • Forest Science

Status

Published

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISSN: 1095-9203