CORE
🇺🇦
make metadata, not war
Services
Services overview
Explore all CORE services
Access to raw data
API
Dataset
FastSync
Content discovery
Recommender
Discovery
OAI identifiers
OAI Resolver
Managing content
Dashboard
Bespoke contracts
Consultancy services
Support us
Support us
Membership
Sponsorship
Community governance
Advisory Board
Board of supporters
Research network
About
About us
Our mission
Team
Blog
FAQs
Contact us
The mechanical stability of the world’s tallest broadleaf trees
Authors
J Bin Jami
A Bin Sailim
+11 more
DS Boyd
A Burt
CJ Chandler
DA Coomes
M Disney
TD Jackson
N Majalap
Y Malhi
G Reynolds
AF Shenkin
P Wilkes
Publication date
1 January 2021
Publisher
Biotropica
Doi
Cite
Abstract
© 2020 The Authors. Biotropica published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of Association for Tropical Biology and Conservation The factors that limit the maximum height of trees, whether ecophysiological or mechanical, are the subject of longstanding debate. Here, we examine the role of mechanical stability in limiting tree height and focus on trees from the tallest tropical forests on Earth, in Sabah, Malaysian Borneo, including the recently discovered tallest tropical tree, a 100.8 m Shorea faguetiana named Menara. We use terrestrial laser scans, in situ strain gauge data and finite element simulations, to map the architecture of tall tropical trees and monitor their response to wind loading. We demonstrate that a tree's risk of breaking due to gravity or self-weight decreases with tree height and is much more strongly affected by tree architecture than by material properties. In contrast, wind damage risk increases with tree height despite the larger diameters of tall trees, resulting in a U-shaped curve of mechanical risk with tree height. Our results suggest that the relative rarity of extreme wind speeds in north Borneo may be the reason it is home to the tallest trees in the tropics. Abstract in MALAY is available with online material
Similar works
Full text
Open in the Core reader
Download PDF
Available Versions
Sustaining member
Apollo (Cambridge)
See this paper in CORE
Go to the repository landing page
Download from data provider
oai:www.repository.cam.ac.uk:1...
Last time updated on 31/10/2020