A 21 ac, 28-yr-old water oak (Quercus nigra L.)plantation, on an old-field loessial site in north Louisiana, was subjected to three thinning treatments during the winter of 1987-1988: (I) no thinning, (2) light thinning to 180 dominant and codominant trees/at, and (3) heavy thinning to 90 dominant and codominant trees/at. Prior to thinning, the plantation averaged 356 trees/at and 86@/ac of bas...

We compared growth rates among mature interior Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii var. glauca (Beissn.) Franco) trees showing resistance or susceptibility to defoliation caused by western spruce budworm (Choristoneura occidentalis Freeman), and among clones and half-sib seedling progeny of these trees in a greenhouse. We also investigated bud burst phenology and photosynthetic responses of clon...

Ecosystem-level estimates of the effect of lianas on tree growth in mature tropical forests are needed to evaluate the functional impact of lianas and their potential to affect the ability of tropical forests to sequester carbon, but these are currently lacking. Using data collected on tree growth rates, local growing conditions and liana competition in five permanent sampling plots in Amazonia...

Increasing CO2 concentrations are strongly controlled by the behavior of established forests, which are believed to be a major current sink of atmospheric CO2. There are many models which predict forest responses to environmental changes but they are almost exclusively carbon source (i.e., photosynthesis) driven. Here we present a model for an individual tree that takes into account the intrins...

1. Coomes & Allen (2009) propose a new statistical method to test the Metabolic Scaling Theory prediction for tree growth rate size scaling (scaling constant a = 1 ⁄3) presented in Enquist et al. (1999). This method finds values of the scaling constant that yield standardized major axis (SMA) slopes of one in a comparison of allometrically transformed diameter census data. This SMA ‘slope-of-on...

BACKGROUND AND AIMS Altitudinal timberlines are thought to move upward by global warming, a crucial topic in ecology. Tall tree species (the conifer Abies mariesii and the deciduous broad-leaved Betula ermanii) dominate the sub-alpine zone between 1600 and 2500 m a.s.l., the timberline, on Mount Norikura in central Japan. Dwarf pine Pinus pumila dominates above the timberline to near the summit...