title: Comparing tropical forest tree size distributions with the predictions of metabolic ecology and equilibrium models.
abstract: Tropical forests vary substantially in the densities of trees of different sizes and thus in above-ground biomass and carbon stores. However, these tree size distributions show fundamental similarities suggestive of underlying general principles. The theory of metabolic ecology predicts that tree abundances will scale as the -2 power of diameter. Demographic equilibrium theory explains tree abundances in terms of the scaling of growth and mortality. We use demographic equilibrium theory to derive analytic predictions for tree size distributions corresponding to different growth and mortality functions. We test both sets of predictions using data from 14 large-scale tropical forest plots encompassing censuses of 473 ha and > 2 million trees. The data are uniformly inconsistent with the predictions of metabolic ecology. In most forests, size distributions are much closer to the predictions of demographic equilibrium, and thus, intersite variation in size distributions is explained partly by intersite variation in growth and mortality.
authors.forename: Helene C
authors.initials: HC
authors.lastname: Muller-Landau
authors.forename: Richard S
authors.initials: RS
authors.lastname: Condit
authors.forename: Kyle E
authors.initials: KE
authors.lastname: Harms
authors.forename: Christian O
authors.initials: CO
authors.lastname: Marks
authors.forename: Sean C
authors.initials: SC
authors.lastname: Thomas
authors.forename: Sarayudh
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Bunyavejchewin
authors.forename: George
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Chuyong
authors.forename: Leonardo
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Co
authors.forename: Stuart
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Davies
authors.forename: Robin
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Foster
authors.forename: Savitri
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Gunatilleke
authors.forename: Nimal
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Gunatilleke
authors.forename: Terese
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Hart
authors.forename: Stephen P
authors.initials: SP
authors.lastname: Hubbell
authors.forename: Akira
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Itoh
authors.forename: Abd Rahman
authors.initials: AR
authors.lastname: Kassim
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Kenfack
authors.forename: James V
authors.initials: JV
authors.lastname: LaFrankie
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Lagunzad
authors.forename: Hua Seng
authors.initials: HS
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Elizabeth
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Losos
authors.forename: Jean-Remy
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Makana
authors.forename: Tatsuhiro
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Ohkubo
authors.forename: Cristian
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Samper
authors.forename: Raman
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Sukumar
authors.forename: I-Fang
authors.initials: IF
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.forename: M N
authors.initials: MN
authors.lastname: Nur Supardi
authors.forename: Sylvester
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Tan
authors.forename: Duncan
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Thomas
authors.forename: Jill
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Thompson
authors.forename: Renato
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Valencia
authors.forename: Martha Isabel
authors.initials: MI
authors.lastname: Vallejo
authors.forename: Gorky Villa
authors.initials: GV
authors.lastname: Muñoz
authors.forename: Takuo
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Yamakura
authors.forename: Jess K
authors.initials: JK
authors.lastname: Zimmerman
authors.forename: Handanakere Shavaramaiah
authors.initials: HS
authors.lastname: Dattaraja
authors.forename: Shameema
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Esufali
authors.forename: Pamela
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Hall
authors.forename: Fangliang
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: He
authors.forename: Consuelo
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Hernandez
authors.forename: Somboon
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kiratiprayoon
authors.forename: Hebbalalu S
authors.initials: HS
authors.lastname: Suresh
authors.forename: Christopher
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Wills
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Ashton
mesh_terms: D018533:Biomass; D001699:Biometry; D002244:Carbon / Q000378:metabolism; D005544:Forecasting; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D009026:Mortality; D014197:Trees / Q000254:growth & development* / Q000378:metabolism*; D014329:Tropical Climate
chemical_list: D002244:Carbon