Abstract:Trees can live many centuries with sustained fecundity and death is largely stochastic. We use a neutral stochastic model to examine the 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 >10-20x median age. Maximum age increases with bigger populations and lower mortality rates. One quarter of trees (~24%) achieve ages that are 3-4 times … Show more
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