ArticlePlant, cell & environment2025
Trade-Offs Between Growth, Longevity, and Storage Carbohydrates in Herbs and Shrubs: Evidence for Active Carbon Allocation Strategies.
Article in Plant, cell & environment, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 6 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
6 citing papers in PubMed.
- Slow growth as a strategy for plant longevity.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Tree-ring stable isotopes and growth trajectories reveal early warning signals of drought-induced Scots pine mortality.Tree physiology · 2026Article
- Multi-omics elucidation of temporal patterns in tanshinone accumulation in Salvia miltiorrhiza.BMC plant biology · 2026Article
- Fast seasonal growth promotes regional stability by strengthening local temporal stability in Inner Mongolian grasslands.Frontiers in plant science · 2026Article
- Nitrogen saturation drives shifts in response patterns of non-structural carbohydrate pools in a meadow steppe after ceasing nitrogen addition.Frontiers in plant science · 2026Article
- Genotype-specific transcriptomic response to drought stress in potato cultivars modulated by microbial biostimulants.BMC plant biology · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
12 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Plants store nonstructural carbohydrates (NSCs) like starch, fructans and soluble sugars to support metabolism, stress tolerance and defence during low photosynthesis, ultimately influencing their growth and longevity. However, the relationship between NSC composition and growth or persistence in wild plants remains unclear. This study explores trade-offs between growth, longevity and NSCs in 201 plant species across diverse climates in the Western USA, spanning 500-4300 m in elevation and 80-1000 mm in precipitation. Annual growth rates and plant ages were derived from the ring widths of semidesert, steppe and alpine herbs and shrubs, along with NSC profiles in their roots and rhizomes. Results showed an inverse relationship between growth and age, with total NSC, starch and fructan levels negatively correlated with growth, supporting the growth-longevity and growth-storage trade-off hypotheses. Conversely, higher growth rates were linked to soluble sugars, suggesting that climate-driven growth limitations alone do not explain increased NSCs. Fructans were positively associated with longevity, especially in long-lived desert shrubs and alpine herbs, underscoring NSCs' active role in survival strategies. These findings challenge the carbon surplus hypothesis, suggesting that plants actively use specific NSCs to balance growth and persistence, with energy-rich sugars promoting growth and osmoprotective fructans enhancing longevity.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.