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Allometric scaling of production and life-history variation in vascular plants

Nature volume 401, pages 907–911 (1999)Cite this article

A Correction to this article was published on 07 December 2000

Abstract

A prominent feature of comparative life histories is the well documented negative correlation between growth rate and life span1,2. Patterns of resource allocation during growth and reproduction reflect life-history differences between species1,2. This is particularly striking in tropical forests, where tree species can differ greatly in their rates of growth and ages of maturity but still attain similar canopy sizes3,4. Here we provide a theoretical framework for relating life-history variables to rates of production, dM/dt, where M is above-ground mass and t is time. As metabolic rate limits production as an individual grows, dM/dt ∝ M3/4. Incorporating interspecific variation in resource allocation to wood density, we derive a universal growth law that quantitatively fits data for a large sample of tropical tree species with diverse life histories. Combined with evolutionary life-history theory1, the growth law also predicts several qualitative features of tree demography and reproduction. This framework also provides a general quantitative answer to why relative growth rate (1/M)(dM/df) decreases with increasing plant size (∝M-1/4) and how it varies with differing allocation strategies5,6,7,8.

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Figure 1: Representative variation of D2/3(0) versus D2/3(20) for six species of tropical trees.
Figure 2: Growth rates of multiple species of tropical forest trees.

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Acknowledgements

We thank R. J. Whittaker, G. C. Stevens, D. H. Janzen, J. J. Sullivan, L. Brown, C. A. F. Enquist, A. Masis and the A.C.G. for comments and help with data collection. B.J.E. was supported by a NSF postdoctoral fellowship, G.B.W. by the US Department of Energy and the NSF, E.L.C. by a MacArthur fellowship and J.H.B. by a University of New Mexico Faculty Research Semester. B.J.E., G.B.W. and J.H.B. were also supported by the Thaw Charitable Trust.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis, 735 State Street, Suite 300, Santa Barbara, 93101-5504, California, USA

    Brian J. Enquist

  2. Department of Biology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, 87131, New Mexico, USA

    Eric L. Charnov & James H. Brown

  3. The Santa Fe Institute, 1399 Hyde Park Road, Santa Fe, 87501, New Mexico, USA

    Brian J. Enquist, Geoffrey B. West & James H. Brown

  4. Theoretical Division, T-8, MS B285, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, 87545, New Mexico, USA

    Geoffrey B. West

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  1. Brian J. Enquist
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  4. James H. Brown
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Correspondence to Brian J. Enquist.

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Enquist, B., West, G., Charnov, E. et al. Allometric scaling of production and life-history variation in vascular plants. Nature 401, 907–911 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1038/44819

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