Why are so many trees hollow?
In many living trees, much of the interior of the trunk can be rotten or even hollowed out. Previously, this has been suggested to be adaptive, with microbial or animal consumption of interior wood producing a rain of nutrients to the soil beneath the tree that allows recycling of those nutrients into new growth via the trees roots. Here I propose an alternative (non-exclusive) explanation: such loss of wood comes at very little cost to the tree and so investment in costly chemical defence of this wood is not economic. I discuss how this theory can be tested empirically.
School of Biology, University of St Andrews, St Andrews KY16 9TH, UK gr41@st-andrews.ac.uk.
Graeme D
GD
Ruxton
D005075:Biological Evolution; D008954:Models, Biological; D014197:Trees / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000254:growth & development*; D014934:Wood / Q000033:anatomy & histology*
herbivory; plant defences; termites; wood