TY - JOUR
T1 - Forest Age Rivals Climate to Explain Reproductive Allocation Patterns in Forest Ecosystems Globally
AU - Ward, Rachel E.
AU - Zhang-Zheng, Huanyuan
AU - Abernethy, Kate
AU - Adu-Bredu, Stephen
AU - Arroyo, Luzmilla
AU - Bailey, Andrew
AU - Barlow, Jos
AU - Berenguer, Erika
AU - Chesini-Rossi, Liana
AU - Cho, Percival
AU - Dahlsjö, Cecilia A.L.
AU - das Neves, Eder Carvalho
AU - de Oliveira Sales, Bianca
AU - Farfan-Rios, William
AU - Ferreira, Joice Nunes
AU - Freitag, Renata
AU - Girardin, Cécile
AU - Huaraca Huasco, Walter
AU - Joly, Carlos A.
AU - Malhi, Yadvinder
AU - Marimon, Beatriz
AU - Marimon Junior, Ben Hur
AU - Morel, Alexandra C.
AU - Muller-Landau, Helene C.
AU - Peixoto, Karine da Silva
AU - Reis, Simone
AU - Riutta, Terhi
AU - Salinas, Norma
AU - Seixas, Marina
AU - Silman, Miles R.
AU - Kueppers, Lara M.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2025 The Author(s). Ecology Letters published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. This article has been contributed to by U.S. Government employees and their work is in the public domain in the USA.
PY - 2025/8
Y1 - 2025/8
N2 - Forest allocation of net primary productivity (NPP) to reproduction (carbon required for flowers, fruits, and seeds) is poorly quantified globally, despite its critical role in forest regeneration and a well-supported trade-off with allocation to growth. Here, we present the first global synthesis of a biometric proxy for forest reproductive allocation (RA) across environmental and stand age gradients from a compiled dataset of 824 observations across 393 sites. We find that ecosystem-scale RA increases ~60% from boreal to tropical forests. Climate shows important non-linear relationships with RA, but is not the sole predictor. Forest age effects are comparable to climate in magnitude (MAT: ß = 0.24, p = 0.021; old growth forest: ß = 0.22, p < 0.001), while metrics of soil fertility show small but significant relationships with RA (soil pH: ß = 0.07, p = 0.001; soil N: ß = −0.07, p = 0.001). These results provide strong evidence that ecosystem-scale RA is mediated by climate, forest age, and soil conditions, and is not a globally fixed fraction of positive NPP as assumed by most vegetation and ecosystem models. Our dataset and findings can be used by modellers to improve predictions of forest regeneration and carbon cycling.
AB - Forest allocation of net primary productivity (NPP) to reproduction (carbon required for flowers, fruits, and seeds) is poorly quantified globally, despite its critical role in forest regeneration and a well-supported trade-off with allocation to growth. Here, we present the first global synthesis of a biometric proxy for forest reproductive allocation (RA) across environmental and stand age gradients from a compiled dataset of 824 observations across 393 sites. We find that ecosystem-scale RA increases ~60% from boreal to tropical forests. Climate shows important non-linear relationships with RA, but is not the sole predictor. Forest age effects are comparable to climate in magnitude (MAT: ß = 0.24, p = 0.021; old growth forest: ß = 0.22, p < 0.001), while metrics of soil fertility show small but significant relationships with RA (soil pH: ß = 0.07, p = 0.001; soil N: ß = −0.07, p = 0.001). These results provide strong evidence that ecosystem-scale RA is mediated by climate, forest age, and soil conditions, and is not a globally fixed fraction of positive NPP as assumed by most vegetation and ecosystem models. Our dataset and findings can be used by modellers to improve predictions of forest regeneration and carbon cycling.
KW - climate
KW - ecosystem modelling
KW - forest age
KW - forest ecosystems
KW - forest regeneration
KW - reproductive allocation
KW - soil fertility
UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/105014522858
U2 - 10.1111/ele.70191
DO - 10.1111/ele.70191
M3 - Review article
AN - SCOPUS:105014522858
SN - 1461-023X
VL - 28
JO - Ecology Letters
JF - Ecology Letters
IS - 8
M1 - e70191
ER -
ODS 13: Acción por el clima