Wood properties and trunk allometry of co-occurring rainforest canopy trees in a cyclone-prone environment1

Author

Jennifer Read2,5, 

Robert Evans3, 

Gordon D. Sanson2, 

Stuart Kerr2 and 

Tanguy Jaffré4

-Author Affiliations

1. 2School of Biological Sciences, Monash University, Victoria 3800, Australia
2. 3CSIRO Materials Science and Engineering, Clayton, Victoria 3168, Australia
3. 4IRD, UMR AMAP, Laboratoire de Botanique et d’Écologie Végétale Appliquées, BP A5 Nouméa 98848 New Caledonia

• Received for publication 16 February 2011.
• Accepted for publication 5 August 2011.

 

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ABSTRACT

• Premise of study: New Caledonia commonly experiences cyclones, so trees there are expected to have enhanced wood traits and trunk allometry that confer resistance to wind damage. We ask whether there is evidence of a trade-off between these traits and growth rate among species.

• Methods: Wood traits, including density, microfibril angle (MFA), and modulus of elasticity (MOE), ratio of tree height to stem diameter, and growth rate were investigated in mature trees of 15 co-occurring canopy species in a New Caledonian rainforest.

• Key results: In contrast to some studies, wood density did not correlate negatively with growth increment. Among angiosperms, wood density and MOE correlated positively with diameter-adjusted tree height, and MOE correlated positively with stem-diameter growth increment. Tall slender trees achieved high stiffness with high efficiency with respect to wood density, in part by low MFA, and with a higher diameter growth increment but a lower buckling safety factor. However, some tree species of a similar niche differed in whole-tree resistance to wind damage and achieved wood stiffness in different ways.

• Conclusions: There was no evidence of a growth-safety trade-off in these trees. In forests that regularly experience cyclones, there may be stronger selection for high wood density and/or stiffness in fast-growing trees of the upper canopy, with the potential growth trade-off amortized by access to the upper canopy and by other plant traits. Furthermore, decreasing wood density does not necessarily decrease resistance to wind damage, resistance being influenced by other characteristics including cell-level traits (e.g., MFA) and whole-plant architecture.

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