The global spectrum of tree crown architecture
Abstract
Abstract Trees can differ enormously in their crown architectural traits, such as the scaling relationships between tree height, crown width and stem diameter. Yet despite the importance of crown architecture in shaping the structure and function of terrestrial ecosystems, we lack a complete picture of what drives this incredible diversity in crown shapes. Using data from 374,888 globally distributed trees, we explore how climate, disturbance, competition, functional traits, and evolutionary history constrain the height and crown width scaling relationships of 1914 tree species. We find that variation in height–diameter scaling relationships is primarily controlled by water availability and light competition. Conversely, crown width is predominantly shaped by exposure to wind and fire, while also covarying with functional traits related to mechanical stability and photosynthesis. Additionally, we identify several plant lineages with highly distinctive stem and crown forms, such as the exceedingly slender dipterocarps of Southeast Asia, or the extremely wide crowns of legume trees in African savannas. Our study charts the global spectrum of tree crown architecture and pinpoints the processes that shape the 3D structure of woody ecosystems.
Article Details
Authors (120)
Tommaso Jucker
School of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK.
Fabian Jörg Fischer
Jérôme Chave
David A. Coomes
John Caspersen
Arshad Ali
Grace Jopaul Loubota Panzou
Ted R. Feldpausch
School of Geography, University of Leeds
Daniel Falster
Evolution & Ecology Research Centre, UNSW Sydney
Vladimir A. Usoltsev
Toby D. Jackson
Stephen Adu-Bredu
Luciana F. Alves
Mohammad Aminpour
Bhely Angoboy Ilondea
Niels P. R. Anten
Cécile Antin
Yousef Askari
Narayanan Ayyappan
Lindsay F. Banin
UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology, Penicuik, Midlothian, UK.
Nicolas Barbier
John J. Battles
Hans Beeckman
Yannick E. Bocko
Ben Bond-Lamberty
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Frans Bongers
Samuel Bowers
Michiel van Breugel
Arthur Chantrain
Rajeev Chaudhary
Jingyu Dai
Michele Dalponte
Kangbéni Dimobe
Jean-Christophe Domec
Jean-Louis Doucet
Juan Manuel Dupuy Rada
Remko A. Duursma
Moisés Enríquez
Karin Y. van Ewijk
William Farfan-Rios
Herbario Vargas, Universidad Nacional de San Antonio Abad del Cusco
Adeline Fayolle
Marco Ferretti
Eric Forni
David I. Forrester
Hammad Gilani
John L. Godlee
Matthias Haeni
Jefferson S. Hall
Jie-Kun He
Andreas Hemp
José L. Hernández-Stefanoni
Steven I. Higgins
Robert J. Holdaway
Kiramat Hussain
Lindsay B. Hutley
Tomoaki Ichie
Yoshiko Iida
Hai-Sheng Jiang
Puspa Raj Joshi
Hasan Kaboli
Maryam Kazempour Larsary
Tanaka Kenzo
Brian D. Kloeppel
Takashi S. Kohyama
Suwash Kunwar
Shem Kuyah
Jakub Kvasnica
Siliang Lin
Emily R. Lines
Hongyan Liu
CAS Key Laboratory of Green Process and Engineering, State Key Laboratory of Multiphase Complex Systems, Beijing Key Laboratory of Ionic Liquids Clean Process, Institute of Process Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China
Craig Lorimer
Jean-Joël Loumeto
Yadvinder Malhi
Peter L. Marshall
Eskil Mattsson
Radim Matula
Jorge A. Meave
Sylvanus Mensah
Xiangcheng Mi
Stéphane T. Momo
Glenn R. Moncrieff
Francisco Mora
Rodrigo Muñoz
Sarath P. Nissanka
Zamah Shari Nur Hajar
Kevin L. O’Hara
Steven Pearce
Raphaël Pelissier
Pablo L. Peri
Pierre Ploton
AMAP Univ Montpellier, IRD, CNRS, INRAE, CIRAD, Montpellier, France.
Lourens Poorter
Mohsen Javanmiri Pour
Hassan Pourbabaei
Sabina C. Ribeiro
Casey Ryan
Anvar Sanaei
Jennifer Sanger
Michael Schlund
Giacomo Sellan
Alexander Shenkin
Bonaventure Sonké
Frank J. Sterck
Martin Svátek
Kentaro Takagi
Anna T. Trugman
Matthew A. Vadeboncoeur
Ahmad Valipour
Mark C. Vanderwel
Alejandra G. Vovides
Peter Waldner
Weiwei Wang
Li-Qiu Wang
Christian Wirth
German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv), Halle-Jena-Leipzig
Murray Woods
Wenhua Xiang
Fabiano de Aquino Ximenes
Yaozhan Xu
Toshihiro Yamada
Miguel A. Zavala
Niklaus E. Zimmermann