TY - JOUR
T1 - Testing metabolic ecology theory for allometric scaling of tree size, growth and mortality in tropical forests
AU - Muller-Landau, Helene C.
AU - Condit, Richard S.
AU - Chave, Jerome
AU - Thomas, Sean C.
AU - Bohlman, Stephanie A.
AU - Bunyavejchewin, Sarayudh
AU - Davies, Stuart
AU - Foster, Robin
AU - Gunatilleke, Savitri
AU - Gunatilleke, Nimal
AU - Harms, Kyle E.
AU - Hart, Terese
AU - Hubbell, Stephen P.
AU - Itoh, Akira
AU - Kassim, Abd Rahman
AU - LaFrankie, James V.
AU - Lee, Hua Seng
AU - Losos, Elizabeth
AU - Makana, Jean Remy
AU - Ohkubo, Tatsuhiro
AU - Sukumar, Raman
AU - Sun, I. Fang
AU - Nur Supardi, M. N.
AU - Tan, Sylvester
AU - Thompson, Jill
AU - Valencia, Renato
AU - Muñoz, Gorky Villa
AU - Wills, Christopher
AU - Yamakura, Takuo
AU - Chuyong, George
AU - Dattaraja, Handanakere Shivaramaiah
AU - Esufali, Shameema
AU - Hall, Pamela
AU - Hernandez, Consuelo
AU - Kenfack, David
AU - Kiratiprayoon, Somboon
AU - Suresh, Hebbalalu S.
AU - Thomas, Duncan
AU - Vallejo, Martha Isabel
AU - Ashton, Peter
PY - 2006/5
Y1 - 2006/5
N2 - The theory of metabolic ecology predicts specific relationships among tree stem diameter, biomass, height, growth and mortality. As demographic rates are important to estimates of carbon fluxes in forests, this theory might offer important insights into the global carbon budget, and deserves careful assessment. We assembled data from 10 old-growth tropical forests encompassing censuses of 367 ha and > 1.7 million trees to test the theory's predictions. We also developed a set of alternative predictions that retained some assumptions of metabolic ecology while also considering how availability of a key limiting resource, light, changes with tree size. Our results show that there are no universal scaling relationships of growth or mortality with size among trees in tropical forests. Observed patterns were consistent with our alternative model in the one site where we had the data necessary to evaluate it, and were inconsistent with the predictions of metabolic ecology in all forests.
AB - The theory of metabolic ecology predicts specific relationships among tree stem diameter, biomass, height, growth and mortality. As demographic rates are important to estimates of carbon fluxes in forests, this theory might offer important insights into the global carbon budget, and deserves careful assessment. We assembled data from 10 old-growth tropical forests encompassing censuses of 367 ha and > 1.7 million trees to test the theory's predictions. We also developed a set of alternative predictions that retained some assumptions of metabolic ecology while also considering how availability of a key limiting resource, light, changes with tree size. Our results show that there are no universal scaling relationships of growth or mortality with size among trees in tropical forests. Observed patterns were consistent with our alternative model in the one site where we had the data necessary to evaluate it, and were inconsistent with the predictions of metabolic ecology in all forests.
KW - Asymmetric competition
KW - Demographic rates
KW - Forest dynamics
KW - Light availability
KW - Metabolic theory of ecology
KW - Resource competition theory
KW - Tree allometry
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=33645870665&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1111/j.1461-0248.2006.00904.x
DO - 10.1111/j.1461-0248.2006.00904.x
M3 - Article
C2 - 16643303
AN - SCOPUS:33645870665
SN - 1461-023X
VL - 9
SP - 575
EP - 588
JO - Ecology Letters
JF - Ecology Letters
IS - 5
ER -