Tree rings provide an invaluable long‐term record for understanding how climate and other drivers shape tree growth and forest productivity. However, conventional tree‐ring analysis methods were not designed to simultaneously test effects of climate, tree size, and other drivers on individual growth. This has limited the potential to test ecologically relevant hypotheses on tree growth sensitivity to environmental drivers and their interactions with tree size. Here, we develop and apply a new method to simultaneously model nonlinear effects of primary climate drivers, reconstructed tree diameter at breast height (DBH), and calendar year in generalized least squares models that account for the temporal autocorrelation inherent to each individual tree's growth. We analyze data from 3811 trees representing 40 species at 10 globally distributed sites, showing that precipitation, temperature, DBH, and calendar year have additively, and often interactively, influenced annual growth over the past 120 years. Growth responses were predominantly positive to precipitation (usually over ≥3‐month seasonal windows) and negative to temperature (usually maximum temperature, over ≤3‐month seasonal windows), with concave‐down responses in 63% of relationships. Climate sensitivity commonly varied with DBH (45% of cases tested), with larger trees usually more sensitive. Trends in ring width at small DBH were linked to the light environment under which trees established, but basal area or biomass increments consistently reached maxima at intermediate DBH. Accounting for climate and DBH, growth rate declined over time for 92% of species in secondary or disturbed stands, whereas growth trends were mixed in older forests. These trends were largely attributable to stand dynamics as cohorts and stands age, which remain challenging to disentangle from global change drivers. By providing a parsimonious approach for characterizing multiple interacting drivers of tree growth, our method reveals a more complete picture of the factors influencing growth than has previously been possible.

1 Interspecific relationships between fundamental demographic rates, often called demographic trade-offs, emerge from constraints within individuals related to morphology, physiology and resource allocation. Plant species that grow fast in high light usually have high mortality in shade, and this well-established relationship in part defines a species’ successional niche. More generally, this relationship represents a trade-off between a species’ ability to grow quickly to exploit abundant resources vs. avoiding mortality when resources are less plentiful, but few studies have described this demographic trade-off with respect to environmental factors other than light. 2 Using demographic data from 960 tree species in Bornean rain forest, we examined the evidence for an interspecific demographic trade-off between fast growth and low mortality and its variation among habitats defined by variation in soil fertility and moisture. Such a trade-off could contribute to sorting of tree species among habitats and partly explain the striking patterns of species’ edaphic associations in this and other forests. 3 We found strong evidence for this demographic trade-off, both within the same habitat and when growth on edaphically rich habitats was compared with mortality on a habitat with lower below-ground resource availability. 4 The slope of the growth-mortality relationship varied among habitats, being steepest on the habitat lowest in below-ground resources. For species with the fastest potential growth rates, mortality was higher on this habitat than at comparable growth rates on the three more edaphically rich habitats, providing a possible mechanism by which fast-growing species may be eliminated from the poorest habitat. Adaptations for fast growth may entail a greater mortality risk, if inherently fast-growing species fail to maintain a positive C-balance when below-ground resources are scarce. 5 Conversely, for species with the slowest potential growth rates, the highest species’ mortality rates occurred on the habitats with greatest below-ground resource availability, implying that slow-growing species may have a competitive disadvantage in resource-rich environments. 6 Synthesis. Differences among habitats in the steepness of this trade-off may sort species into different habitats along this edaphic gradient, whereas on the same soil, this demographic trade-off could facilitate coexistence of at least some species in this forest. Thus, by generating emergent demographic trade-offs that vary along resource gradients, plant life-history strategies can influence species diversity and distribution.

Summary: 1. Wood density is considered a key functional trait influencing the growth and survival of woody plants and has been shown to be related to a slow–fast rate‐of‐living continuum. Wood density is, however, an emergent trait arising from several vascular properties of wood, including the diameter and frequency of xylem conduits. 2. We aimed to test the hypotheses that there is a set of inter‐related trade‐offs linked to the different functions of wood, that these trade‐offs have direct consequences for tree growth and survival and that these trade‐offs underlie the observed correlations between wood density and demographic rates. We evaluated the covariation between xylem anatomical traits among woody species of New Zealand and whether that covariation had the potential to constrain variation in wood density and demographic rates. 3. Several xylem traits were strongly correlated with each other, but wood density was not correlated with any of them. We also found no significant relationships between wood density and growth or mortality rate. Instead, growth was strongly related to xylem traits associated with hydraulic capacity (conduit diameter and a conductivity index) and to maximum height, whereas mortality rate was strongly correlated only with maximum height. The diameter and frequency of conduits exhibited a significant negative relationship, suggesting a trade‐off, which restricted variation in wood density and growth rate, but not mortality rate. 4. Our results suggest, for woody species in New Zealand, that growth rate is more closely linked to xylem traits determining hydraulic conductance, rather than wood density. We also found no evidence that denser woods conferred higher survival, or that risk of cavitation caused by wide conduits increased mortality. 5. In summary, we found little support for the idea that wood density is a good proxy for position along a fast–slow rate‐of‐living continuum. Instead, the strong, negative relationship between vessel diameter and frequency may constrain the realized diversity of demographic niches of tree species in New Zealand. Trade‐offs in function therefore have the potential to shape functional diversity and ecology of forest communities by linking selection on structure and function to population‐level dynamics.

Stress memory refers to the observation that an initial, sub-lethal stress alters plants’ responses to subsequent stresses. Previous transcriptome analyses of maize seedlings exposed to a repeated dehydration stress has revealed the existence of transcriptional stress memory in Zea mays. Whether drought-related physiological responses also display memory and how transcriptional memory translates into physiological memory are fundamental questions that are still unanswered. Using a systems-biology approach we investigate whether/how transcription memory responses established in the genome-wide analysis of Z. mays correlate with 14 physiological parameters measured during a repeated exposure of maize seedlings to dehydration stress. Co-expression network analysis revealed ten gene modules correlating strongly with particular physiological processes, and one module displaying strong, yet divergent, correlations with several processes suggesting involvement of these genes in coordinated responses across networks. Two processes key to the drought response, stomatal conductance and non-photochemical quenching, displayed contrasting memory patterns that may reflect trade-offs related to metabolic costs versus benefits of cellular protection. The main contribution of this study is the demonstration of coordinated changes in transcription memory responses at the genome level and integrated physiological responses at the cellular level upon repetitive stress exposures. The results obtained by the network-based systems analysis challenge the commonly held view that short-term physiological responses to stress are primarily mediated biochemically.

Macroclimate drives vegetation distributions, but fine‐scale topographic variation can generate microclimate refugia for plant persistence in unsuitable areas. However, we lack quantitative descriptions of topography‐driven microclimatic variation and how it shapes forest structure, diversity, and composition. We hypothesized that topographic variation and the presence of the forest overstory cause spatiotemporal microclimate variation affecting tree performance, causing forest structure, diversity, and composition to vary with topography and microclimate, and topography and the overstory to buffer microclimate. In a 20.2‐ha inventory plot in the North American Great Plains, we censused woody stems ≥1 cm in diameter and collected detailed topographic and microclimatic data. Across 59‐m of elevation, microclimate covaried with topography to create a sharp desiccation gradient, and topography and the overstory buffered understory microclimate. The magnitude of microclimatic variation mirrored that of regional‐scale variation: with increasing elevation, there was a decrease in soil moisture corresponding to the difference across ~2.1° of longitude along the east‐to‐west aridity gradient and an increase in air temperature corresponding to the difference across ~2.7° of latitude along the north‐to‐south gradient. More complex forest structure and higher diversity occurred in moister, less‐exposed habitats, and species occupied distinct topographic niches. Our study demonstrates how topographic and microclimatic gradients structure forests in putative climate‐change refugia, by revealing ecological processes enabling populations to be maintained during periods of unfavorable macroclimate.

One mechanism proposed to explain high species diversity in tropical systems is strong negative conspecific density dependence (CDD), which reduces recruitment of juveniles in proximity to conspecific adult plants. Although evidence shows that plant-specific soil pathogens can drive negative CDD, trees also form key mutualisms with mycorrhizal fungi, which may counteract these effects. Across 43 large-scale forest plots worldwide, we tested whether ectomycorrhizal tree species exhibit weaker negative CDD than arbuscular mycorrhizal tree species. We further tested for conmycorrhizal density dependence (CMDD) to test for benefit from shared mutualists. We found that the strength of CDD varies systematically with mycorrhizal type, with ectomycorrhizal tree species exhibiting higher sapling densities with increasing adult densities than arbuscular mycorrhizal tree species. Moreover, we found evidence of positive CMDD for tree species of both mycorrhizal types. Collectively, these findings indicate that mycorrhizal interactions likely play a foundational role in global forest diversity patterns and structure.