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

• Published in: Nature ecology & evolution Vol. 5; no. 2; pp. 174 - 183
• Main Authors: Russo, Sabrina E., McMahon, Sean M., Detto, Matteo, Ledder, Glenn, Wright, S. Joseph, Condit, Richard S., Davies, Stuart J., Ashton, Peter S., Bunyavejchewin, Sarayudh, Chang-Yang, Chia-Hao, Ediriweera, Sisira, Ewango, Corneille E. N., Fletcher, Christine, Foster, Robin B., Gunatilleke, C. V. Savi, Gunatilleke, I. A. U. Nimal, Hart, Terese, Hsieh, Chang-Fu, Hubbell, Stephen P., Itoh, Akira, Kassim, Abdul Rahman, Leong, Yao Tze, Lin, Yi Ching, Makana, Jean-Remy, Mohamad, Mohizah Bt, Ong, Perry, Sugiyama, Anna, Sun, I-Fang, Tan, Sylvester, Thompson, Jill, Yamakura, Takuo, Yap, Sandra L., Zimmerman, Jess K.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 01-02-2021; Nature Publishing Group
• Subjects: 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
• ISSN: 2397-334X; 2397-334X
• DOI: 10.1038/s41559-020-01340-9

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.