Rainforest Image (IMAGE)
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Rainforests around the globe have a remarkably consistent pattern of tree sizes. Now researchers have found that the reason for this structure has to do with the competition for sunlight after a large tree falls and leaves an opening in the canopy. The newly available sunlight enables the understory trees to grow quickly until a few outstrip the others and block the light from reaching their shorter counterparts. The process of moving from fast growth in the sun to slow growth in the shade sets up the characteristic size structure that is common across tropical rainforests, according to research conducted by Caroline Farrior while a postdoctoral research associate at the Princeton Environmental Institute working with Stephen Pacala, Princeton's Frederick D. Petrie Professor in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology.
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Caroline Farrior
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Image credit: Caroline Farrior
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