Impacts of climate on stem growth in trees are studied in anatomical, ecophysiological, and
ecological disciplines, but an integrative framework to assess those impacts remains …

In the stems of terrestrial vascular plants studied to date, the diameter of xylem water‐
conducting conduits D widens predictably with distance from the stem tip L approximating …

Forest ecosystem models based on heuristic water stress functions poorly predict tropical
forest response to drought partly because they do not capture the diversity of hydraulic traits …

Tree hydraulic architecture exhibits patterns that propagate from tissue to tree scales. A
challenge is to make sense of these patterns in terms of trade‐offs and adaptations. The …

Current theory presumes that natural selection on vascular traits is controlled by a trade‐off
between efficiency and safety of hydraulic architecture. Hence, traits linked to efficiency …

Abstract Purpose of Review This review shows that a more or less constant rate of tip-to-
base vessel widening across species, together with the assumption that wider vessels are …

Trees are among the best natural archives of past environmental information. Xylem
anatomy preserves information related to tree allometry and ecophysiological performance …

Variation in angiosperm vessel diameter is of major functional significance. In the light of
recent models predicting optimal vessel taper given resistance imposed by conductive path …

Plant vascular networks are central to botanical form, function, and diversity. Here, we
develop a theory for plant network scaling that is based on optimal space filling by the …

The metabolic theory of ecology (MTE) predicts the effects of body size and temperature on
metabolism through considerations of vascular distribution networks and biochemical …