Sapling growth and survivorship as a function of light in a mesic forest of southeast Texas, USA

For seven species in a mature mesic forest in southeast Texas, we estimated species-specific parameters representing radial growth in high light and low light for tree saplings. Shade-intolerant species had higher asymptotic growth rates and lower low-light growth than tolerant species. Inspection of species positions on graphs of low-light growth versus high-light growth suggested that there was a trade-off between these two processes across species. By linking functions of growth versus light and mortality versus growth, we also found that shade-intolerant species had higher mortality risk at low light and stronger sensitivity of mortality to light than shade-tolerant species. Moreover, we found that low-light survival and high-light growth were negatively correlated across species. In contrast to northern hardwood forests, where sapling survival in low light may be achieved at the expense of growth, our results suggested that shade-tolerant species in this southern mixed forest can grow faster as well as survive better than shade-intolerant species in low light. We conclude that both sapling growth and survival are important components of shade tolerance and their relationships may be system-specific.