ArticleNature plants2022
Old and ancient trees are life history lottery winners and vital evolutionary resources for long-term adaptive capacity.
Article in Nature plants, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 20 papers.
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Who cites it
20 citing papers in PubMed.
- Ancient trees, different genetic legacies.Nature plants · 2026Article
- Population history rather than tree age contributes to the evolutionary importance of ancient trees in an endangered conifer.Nature plants · 2026Article
- Ecosystem Service-Based Deconstruction of Ancient Tree Values: Implications for Biodiversity Conservation and Socio-Ecological Management.Plants (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- Ancient oaks reveal rewilding of Mediterranean forests after the Black Death.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2026Article
- Correlative Changes in Endogenous Polyamines and Hormones Associated with Aging in AncientPlants (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Longevity in plants impacts phylogenetic and population dynamics.The New phytologist · 2026Article
- Simulating the pathway from life history to phylogeny.The New phytologist · 2026Article
- Climatic Adaptability Changes in Leaf Functional Traits of OldPlants (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- The long tail of tree maximum lifespan enriches the forest.Nature ecology & evolution · 2025Article
- Climatic differences among habitats shape the balance between maximum lifespan and life expectancy in Japanese tree species.Nature ecology & evolution · 2025Article
- Differences and driving factors of leaf functional traits between old tree and mature tree of Pinus tabulaeformis in the Loess Plateau.BMC plant biology · 2025Article
- Transcriptome and Metabolome Analyses of Leaves from Cutting Rejuvenation of AncientInternational journal of molecular sciences · 2024Article
- Growing old while staying young : The unique mechanisms that defy aging in plants.EMBO reports · 2024Article
- Ancient trees are essential elements for high-mountain forest conservation: Linking the longevity of trees to their ecological function.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2024Article
- Changes ofPeerJ · 2024Article
- Integrated Metabolomics, Transcriptome and Functional Analysis Reveal Key Genes Are Involved in Tree Age-Induced Amino Acid Accumulation inInternational journal of molecular sciences · 2023Article
- Human activities and species biological traits drive the long-term persistence of old trees in human-dominated landscapes.Nature plants · 2023Article
- Article
- Physiological mechanisms underlying extreme longevity in mountain pine trees.Plant physiology · 2023Article
- Surveying the unknown forests.Nature plants · 2022Article
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3 authors.
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Abstract
Trees can live for many centuries with sustained fecundity and death is largely stochastic. We use a neutral stochastic model to examine tree demographic patterns that emerge over time, across a range of population sizes and empirically observed mortality rates. A small proportion of trees (~1% at 1.5% mortality) are life-history 'lottery winners', achieving ages >10-20× the median age. Maximum age increases with bigger populations and lower mortality rates. One-quarter of trees (~24%) achieve ages that are three to four times greater than the median age. Three age classes (mature, old and ancient) contribute unique evolutionary diversity across complex environmental cycles. Ancient trees are an emergent property of forests that requires many centuries to generate. They radically change variance in generation time and population fitness, bridging centennial environmental cycles. These life-history 'lottery' winners are vital to long-term forest adaptive capacity and provide invaluable data about environmental history and individual longevity. Old and ancient trees cannot be replaced through restoration or regeneration for many centuries. They must be protected to preserve their invaluable diversity.
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