Giant trees break a decades-old scientific theory - EarthSky
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Giant trees were supposed to slow down as they grew taller — now new evidence suggests the biggest ones keep accelerating, defying a decades-old limit theory.
Hydraulic Limitation TheoryMetabolic Scaling TheoryResource LimitationAllometric Growth
Theory Briefing
- For decades, scientists believed height starves treetops of water, forcing the tallest trees to stall in growth.
- New findings on giant trees challenge that ceiling, suggesting the largest specimens may actually grow faster as they age.
- The discovery upends a foundational assumption about how forests accumulate biomass over time.
- If giant trees keep accelerating, old-growth forests may store far more carbon than current models predict.