Publications

The pace of life for forest trees

Bialic-Murphy, Lalasia; McElderry, Robert M.; Esquivel-Muelbert, Adriane; van den Hoogen, Johan; Zuidema, Pieter A.; Phillips, Oliver L.; de Oliveira, Edmar Almeida; Loayza, Patricia Alvarez; Alvarez-Davila, Esteban; Alves, Luciana F.; Maia, Vinícius Andrade; Vieira, Simone Aparecida; Arantes da Silva, Lidiany Carolina; Araujo-Murakami, Alejandro; Arets, Eric; Astigarraga, Julen; Baccaro, Fabrício; Baker, Timothy; Banki, Olaf; Barroso, Jorcely; Blanc, Lilian; Bonal, Damien; Bongers, Frans; Bordin, Kauane Maiara; Brienen, Roel; de Medeiros, Marcelo Brilhante; Camargo, José Luís; Araújo, Felipe Carvalho; Castilho, Carolina V.; Castro, Wendeson; Moscoso, Victor Chama; Comiskey, James; Costa, Flávia; Müller, Sandra Cristina; de Almeida, Everton Cristo; Lôla da Costa, Antonio Carlos; de Andrade Kamimura, Vitor; de Oliveira, Fernanda; Del Aguila Pasquel, Jhon; Derroire, Géraldine; Dexter, Kyle; Di Fiore, Anthony; Duchesne, Louis; Emílio, Thaise; Farrapo, Camila Laís; Fauset, Sophie; Draper, Federick C.; Feldpausch, Ted R.; Ramos, Rafael Flora; Martins, Valeria Forni; Simon, Marcelo Fragomeni; Reis, Miguel Gama; Manzatto, Angelo Gilberto; Herault, Bruno; Herrera, Rafael; Coronado, Eurídice Honorio; Howe, Robert; Huamantupa-Chuquimaco, Isau; Huasco, Walter Huaraca; Zanini, Katia Janaina; Joly, Carlos; Killeen, Timothy; Klipel, Joice; Laurance, Susan G.; Laurance, William F.; Fontes, Marco Aurélio Leite; Oviedo, Wilmar Lopez; Magnusson, William E.; Dos Santos, Rubens Manoel; Peña, Jose Luis Marcelo; de Abreu, Karla Maria Pedra; Marimon, Beatriz; Junior, Ben Hur Marimon; Melgaço, Karina; Melo Cruz, Omar Aurelio; Mendoza, Casimiro; Monteagudo-Mendoza, Abel; Morandi, Paulo S.; Gianasi, Fernanda Moreira; Nascimento, Henrique; Nascimento, Marcelo; Neill, David; Palacios, Walter; Pallqui Camacho, Nadir C.; Pardo, Guido; Pennington, R.T.; Peñuela-Mora, Maria Cristina; Pitman, Nigel C.A.; Poorter, Lourens; Cruz, Adriana Prieto; Ramírez-Angulo, Hirma; Reis, Simone Matias; Correa, Zorayda Restrepo; Rodriguez, Carlos Reynel; Lleras, Agustín Rudas; Santos, Flavio A.M.; Bergamin, Rodrigo Scarton; Schietti, Juliana; Schwartz, Gustavo; Serrano, Julio; Silva-Sene, André Maciel; Silveira, Marcos; Stropp, Juliana; Ter Steege, Hans; Terborgh, John; Tobler, Mathias W.; Gamarra, Luis Valenzuela; van de Meer, Peter J.; van der Heijden, Geertje; Vasquez, Rodolfo; Vilanova, Emilio; Vos, Vincent Antoine; Wolf, Amy; Woodall, Christopher W.; Wortel, Verginia; Zwerts, Joeri A.; Pugh, Thomas A.M.; Crowther, Thomas W.

Summary

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.