Global patterns of biomass allocation in woody species with different tolerances of shade and drought: evidence for multiple strategies

What is it about?

The proportion of biomass allocated to different plant organs (i.e. leaves, stems and roots) is considered an indicator of how plants are maximizing the acquisition of resources such as light, water and nutrients. So, when one of such resources constrains plant growth in a given environment, coexisting plant species are expected to display similar patterns of biomass allocation to leaves, stems and roots. We show that at global scale woody plants employ an array of strategies to cope with shortage of resources such as light or water and such responses strongly depend on plant functional type.

Featured Image