Allometric scaling of plant life history
- Instituto Mediterráneo de Estudios Avanzados, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, Universitat de les Illes Balears, Miquel Marquès 21, 07190 Esporles, Spain
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Edited by James H. Brown, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM, and approved August 1, 2007 (received for review April 15, 2007)
Abstract
Plant mortality and birth rates are critical components of plant life history affecting the stability of plant populations and the ecosystems they form. Although allometric theory predicts that both plant birth and mortality rates should be size-dependent, this prediction has not yet been tested across plants ranging the full size spectrum. Here we show that both population mortality and population birth rates scale as the −¼ power and plant lifespan as the ¼ power of plant mass across plant species spanning from the tiniest phototrophs to the largest trees. Whereas the controls on plant lifespans are as yet poorly understood, our findings suggest that plant mortality rates have evolved to match population birth rates, thereby helping to maintain plant communities in equilibrium and optimizing plant life histories.
Footnotes
- *To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: nuria.marba{at}uib.es
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Author contributions: N.M., C.M.D., and S.A. contributed equally to this work, designed research, performed research, analyzed data, and wrote the paper.
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The authors declare no conflict of interest.
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This article is a PNAS Direct Submission.
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See Commentary on page 15589.
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This article contains supporting information online at www.pnas.org/cgi/content/full/0703476104/DC1.
- Abbreviations:
- c.l.,
- confidence limit;
- dbh,
- diameter at breast height.
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Freely available online through the PNAS open access option.
- © 2007 by The National Academy of Sciences of the USA
