Why trees and shrubs but rarely trubs?

Marten Scheffer; Remi Vergnon; J. Hans C. Cornelissen; Stijn Hantson; Milena Holmgren; Egbert H. van Nes; Chi Xu

doi:10.1016/j.tree.2014.06.001

Why trees and shrubs but rarely trubs?

Marten Scheffer
, Remi Vergnon
, J. Hans C. Cornelissen
, Stijn Hantson
, Milena Holmgren
, Egbert H. van Nes
, Chi Xu

Research output: Contribution to Journal › Short survey › peer-review

55 Scopus citations

Abstract

An analysis of the maximum height of woody plant species across the globe reveals that an intermediate size is remarkably rare. We speculate that this may be due to intrinsic suboptimality or to ecosystem bistability with open landscapes favouring shrubs, and closed canopies propelling trees to excessive tallness.

Original language	English (US)
Pages (from-to)	433-434
Number of pages	2
Journal	Trends in Ecology and Evolution
Volume	29
Issue number	8
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tree.2014.06.001
State	Published - Aug 2014
Externally published	Yes

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

SDG 1 No Poverty

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics

Access to Document

10.1016/j.tree.2014.06.001

Cite this

@article{be9aef3068bf4660bbe16780414a2c1f,

title = "Why trees and shrubs but rarely trubs?",

abstract = "An analysis of the maximum height of woody plant species across the globe reveals that an intermediate size is remarkably rare. We speculate that this may be due to intrinsic suboptimality or to ecosystem bistability with open landscapes favouring shrubs, and closed canopies propelling trees to excessive tallness.",

author = "Marten Scheffer and Remi Vergnon and Cornelissen, \{J. Hans C.\} and Stijn Hantson and Milena Holmgren and \{van Nes\}, \{Egbert H.\} and Chi Xu",

note = "Funding Information: M.S., E.H.v.N., and R.V. are supported by the European Research Council (ERC) under the ERC Grant Agreement n° 268732. The authors are grateful to the TRY initiative on plant traits ( http://www.try-db.org ). TRY is hosted, developed, and maintained by J. Kattge and G. B{\"o}nisch (Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry, Jena, Germany) and is supported by DIVERSITAS, IGBP, the Global Land Project, QUEST and GIS “Climat, Environnement et Soci{\'e}t{\'e}” France. ",

year = "2014",

month = aug,

doi = "10.1016/j.tree.2014.06.001",

language = "English (US)",

volume = "29",

pages = "433--434",

journal = "Trends in Ecology and Evolution",

issn = "0169-5347",