Applications of the fast-slow continuum and reproductive strategy framework of plant life histories.

Abstract

Contents 1618 I. 1618 II. 1619 III. 1620 IV. 1623 1623 References 1624 SUMMARY: Understanding the forces that shape the great amount of variation in plant longevity, reproductive output and growth rate is fundamental to effective predictions of viability, invasions and evolutionary pressures. Here, I extend the recently introduced 'fast-slow continuum and reproductive strategy' framework to quantify the variation in plant life history strategies world-wide. I use high-resolution demographic information from 625 plant species and show that this framework predicts not only key demographic properties, such as population growth rate and demographic resilience, but also has important connections to the leaf economics spectrum, biogeographical characteristics, evolutionary biology and conservation biology. This framework may allow plant biologists to unlock powerful global plant predictions from a handful of open-access field measurements.