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Functional and environmental determinants of bark thickness in fire‐free temperate rain forest communities

Overview of attention for article published in American Journal of Botany, October 2015
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  • In the top 25% of all research outputs scored by Altmetric
  • High Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age (85th percentile)
  • Good Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age and source (76th percentile)

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Title
Functional and environmental determinants of bark thickness in fire‐free temperate rain forest communities
Published in
American Journal of Botany, October 2015
DOI 10.3732/ajb.1500157
Pubmed ID
Authors

Sarah J. Richardson, Daniel C. Laughlin, Michael J. Lawes, Robert J. Holdaway, Janet M. Wilmshurst, Monique Wright, Timothy J. Curran, Peter J. Bellingham, Matt S. McGlone

Abstract

In fire-prone ecosystems, variation in bark thickness among species and communities has been explained by fire frequency; thick bark is necessary to protect cambium from lethal temperatures. Elsewhere this investment is deemed unnecessary, and thin bark is thought to prevail. However, in rain forest ecosystems where fire is rare, bark thickness varies widely among species and communities, and the causes of this variation remain enigmatic. We tested for functional explanations of bark thickness variation in temperate rain forest species and communities. We measured bark thickness in 82 tree species throughout New Zealand temperate rain forests that historically have experienced little fire and applied two complementary analyses. First, we examined correlations between bark traits and leaf habit, and leaf and stem traits. Second, we calculated community-weighted mean (CWM) bark thickness for 272 plots distributed throughout New Zealand to identify the environments in which thicker-barked communities occur. Conifers had higher size-independent bark thickness than evergreen angiosperms. Species with thicker bark or higher bark allocation coefficients were not associated with "slow economic" plant traits. Across 272 forest plots, communities with thicker bark occurred on infertile soils, and communities with thicker bark and higher bark allocation coefficients occurred in cooler, drier climates. In non-fire-prone temperate rain forest ecosystems, investment in bark is driven by soil resources, cool minimum temperatures, and seasonal moisture stress. The role of these factors in fire-prone ecosystems warrants testing.

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Mendeley readers

Mendeley readers

The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 59 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.

Geographical breakdown

Country Count As %
Unknown 59 100%

Demographic breakdown

Readers by professional status Count As %
Researcher 11 19%
Student > Ph. D. Student 7 12%
Student > Master 6 10%
Professor 3 5%
Student > Postgraduate 3 5%
Other 11 19%
Unknown 18 31%
Readers by discipline Count As %
Agricultural and Biological Sciences 15 25%
Environmental Science 15 25%
Earth and Planetary Sciences 4 7%
Arts and Humanities 1 2%
Chemistry 1 2%
Other 0 0%
Unknown 23 39%
Attention Score in Context

Attention Score in Context

This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 12. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 23 April 2019.
All research outputs
#2,989,011
of 24,527,858 outputs
Outputs from American Journal of Botany
#624
of 4,425 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#40,107
of 282,779 outputs
Outputs of similar age from American Journal of Botany
#13
of 52 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 24,527,858 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done well and is in the 87th percentile: it's in the top 25% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 4,425 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a little more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 7.1. This one has done well, scoring higher than 85% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 282,779 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has done well, scoring higher than 85% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 52 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has done well, scoring higher than 76% of its contemporaries.