title: Self-similarity and scaling in forest communities.
abstract: Ecological communities exhibit pervasive patterns and interrelationships between size, abundance, and the availability of resources. We use scaling ideas to develop a unified, model-independent framework for understanding the distribution of tree sizes, their energy use, and spatial distribution in tropical forests. We demonstrate that the scaling of the tree crown at the individual level drives the forest structure when resources are fully used. Our predictions match perfectly with the scaling behavior of an exactly solvable self-similar model of a forest and are in good accord with empirical data. The range, over which pure power law behavior is observed, depends on the available amount of resources. The scaling framework can be used for assessing the effects of natural and anthropogenic disturbances on ecosystem structure and functionality.
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Fisica G Galilei, Università di Padova, Consorzio Nazionale Interuniversitario per le Scienze Fisiche della Materia and Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, via Marzolo 8, 35131 Padua, Italy.
authors.forename: Filippo
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Simini
authors.forename: Tommaso
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Anfodillo
authors.forename: Marco
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Carrer
authors.forename: Jayanth R
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Banavar
authors.forename: Amos
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Maritan
mesh_terms: D003710:Demography; D017753:Ecosystem; D004734:Energy Metabolism / Q000502:physiology*; D008954:Models, Biological; D014197:Trees / Q000254:growth & development*; D014329:Tropical Climate