Trees grow tall where resources are abundant, stresses are minor, and competition for light places a premium on height growth. The height to which trees can grow and the biophysical determinants of maximum height are poorly understood. Some models predict heights of up to 120 m in the absence of mechanical damage, but there are historical accounts of taller trees. Current hypotheses of height limitation focus on increasing water transport constraints in taller trees and the resulting reductions in leaf photosynthesis. We studied redwoods (Sequoia sempervirens), including the tallest known tree on Earth (112.7 m), in wet temperate forests of northern California. Our regression analyses of height gradients in leaf functional characteristics estimate a maximum tree height of 122-130 m barring mechanical damage, similar to the tallest recorded trees of the past. As trees grow taller, increasing leaf water stress due to gravity and path length resistance may ultimately limit leaf expansion and photosynthesis for further height growth, even with ample soil moisture.

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CABI:20153174020Understanding how plants are constructed - i.e., how key size dimensions and the amount of mass invested in different tissues varies among individuals - is essential for modeling plant growth, carbon stocks, and energy fluxes in the terrestrial biosphere. Allocation patterns can differ through ontogeny, but also among coexisting species and among species adapted to different environments. While a variety of models dealing with biomass allocation exist, we lack a synthetic understanding of the underlying processes. This is partly due to the lack of suitable data sets for validating and parameterizing models. To that end, we present the Biomass And Allometry Database (BAAD) for woody plants. The BAAD contains 259634 measurements collected in 176 different studies, from 21084 individuals across 678 species. Most of these data come from existing publications. However, raw data were rarely made public at the time of publication. Thus, the BAAD contains data from different studies, transformed into standard units and variable names. The transformations were achieved using a common workflow for all raw data files. Other features that distinguish the BAAD are: (i) measurements were for individual plants rather than stand averages; (ii) individuals spanning a range of sizes were measured; (iii) plants from 0.01-100 m in height were included; and (iv) biomass was estimated directly, i.e., not indirectly via allometric equations (except in very large trees where biomass was estimated from detailed sub-sampling). We included both wild and artificially grown plants. The data set contains the following size metrics: total leaf area; area of stem cross-section including sapwood, heartwood, and bark; height of plant and crown base, crown area, and surface area; and the dry mass of leaf, stem, branches, sapwood, heartwood, bark, coarse roots, and fine root tissues. We also report other properties of individuals (age, leaf size, leaf mass per area, wood density, nitrogen content of leaves and wood), as well as information about the growing environment (location, light, experimental treatment, vegetation type) where available. It is our hope that making these data available will improve our ability to understand plant growth, ecosystem dynamics, and carbon cycling in the world's vegetation

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As the only species exceeding 90 m in height and 2000 years of age, Sequoia sempervirens and Sequoiadendron giganteum provide the optimal platform upon which to examine interactions among tree structure, age, and growth. We climbed 140 trees in oldgrowth redwood forests across California, USA, spanning a broad range of sizes and including the tallest, largest, and oldest known living individuals (i.e., 115.86 vs. 96.29 m tall, 424 vs. 582 Mg aboveground dry mass, and 2510 vs. 3240 years old for Sequoia and Sequoiadendron, respectively). We used a combination of direct measurements, hierarchical sampling, and dendrochronology to quantify tree structure and annual growth increments through old age. We also developed equations to predict aboveground attributes of standing redwoods via ground-based measurements. Compared to Sequoia, Sequoiadendron develops thicker bark on lower trunks, provisions leaves with more sapwood, and delays heartwood production throughout the crown. Main trunk wood volume growth (up to 1.6 vs. 0.9 m 3 /yr), aboveground biomass growth (up to 0.77 vs. 0.45 Mg/yr), and aboveground growth efficiency (0.55 6 0.04 vs. 0.22 6 0.01 kg annual growth per kg leaves, mean 6 SE) are all higher in Sequoia. Two independent dimensions of structure-size and aboveground vigor-are the strongest predictors of tree-level productivity in both species. A third dimension, relative trunk size, is a significant predictor of growth in Sequoia such that trees with relatively large main trunks compared to their crowns produce more wood annually. Similar-size trees grow at similar rates regardless of latitude or elevation in tall forests of each species. Recent annual growth increments are higher than in the past for the majority of trees, and old trees are just as responsive to environmental changes as young trees. Negative growth-age relationships in previous centuries and positive growth-age relationships in recent decades reflect sampling bias and shifting disturbance regimes. Overall, we find little (if any) evidence for negative effects of old age on tree-level productivity in either species. Except for recovery periods following temporary reductions in crown size, annual increments of wood volume and biomass growth increase as redwoods enlarge with age until extrinsic forces cause tree death.