The world’s tallest tropical tree in three dimensions

Alexander Shenkin; Christopher Chandler; Doreen Boyd; Tobias Jackson; Jamiluddin bin Jami; Mathias Disney; Noreen Majalap; Reuben Nilus; Giles Foody; Glen Reynolds; Phil Wilkes; Mark Cutler; Geertje M. Van Der Heijden; David Burslem; David Coomes; Lisa Patrick Bentley; Yadvinder  Malhi

doi:10.3389/ffgc.2019.00032

The world’s tallest tropical tree in three dimensions

Alexander Shenkin, Christopher Chandler, Doreen Boyd, Tobias Jackson, Jamiluddin bin Jami, Mathias Disney, Noreen Majalap, Reuben Nilus, Giles Foody, Glen Reynolds, Phil Wilkes, Mark Cutler, Geertje M. Van Der Heijden, David Burslem, David Coomes, Lisa Patrick Bentley, Yadvinder Malhi (Corresponding Author)

Aberdeen Centre For Environmental Sustainability

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

35 Citations (Scopus)

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Abstract

Here we report the recent discovery of the world’s tallest tropical tree (Shorea faguetiana), possibly the world’s tallest angiosperm (flowering plant), located in the rainforests of Sabah, Malaysian Borneo. In addition, we provide a novel three-dimensional exploration of the dimensions of this remarkable tree and use these data to speculate on what drives the limits of tree height. Through consideration of both mechanical (risk of wind damage) and ecophysiological constraints we argue that this tree is close to the maximum height possible for angiosperms, around 100 m, and discuss more broadly what the nature and location of this tree imply about the limits to tree height. We propose to name this remarkable tree “Menara”, Malay for “tower".

Original language	English
Article number	32
Journal	Frontiers in Forests and Global Change
Volume	2
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.3389/ffgc.2019.00032
Publication status	Published - 18 Jun 2019

Bibliographical note

We would like to thank NERC for funding the airborne remote sensing campaign (HMTF grant NE/K016377/1 to the BALI consortium, YM, DC and DB) + direct access grant to MC, DSB, GM and DB), analyses (grants NE/P004806/1 to MC, DSB, GF, DB, GH, and NE/I528477/1 to GH, DSB, GF), and ground-based work (grant NE/P012337/1 to YM, MD and LPB); an ERC Advanced Investigator Award (321131) to YM for funding the UAV work; LAStools’ LASmoons program for a free academic license; and an Anne McLaren Research fellowship by the University of Nottingham to GH for funding the tree climbing. YM is supported by the Jackson Foundation.

Data availability statement
Generated Statement: The datasets generated for this study are available on request to the corresponding author.

Keywords

tree height
tropical forests
limits to height
angiosperm
LIDAR - remote sensing
terrestrial laser scanning
UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle)

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

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10.3389/ffgc.2019.00032Licence: CC BY

The World's Tallest Tropical Tree in Three Dimensions
Copyright © 2019 Shenkin, Chandler, Boyd, Jackson, Disney, Majalap, Nilus, Foody, bin Jami, Reynolds, Wilkes, Cutler, van der Heijden, Burslem, Coomes, Bentley and Malhi. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Final published version, 927 KBLicence: CC BY

Cite this

Shenkin, A., Chandler, C., Boyd, D., Jackson, T., bin Jami, J., Disney, M., Majalap, N., Nilus, R., Foody, G., Reynolds, G., Wilkes, P., Cutler, M., Van Der Heijden, G. M., Burslem, D., Coomes, D., Bentley, L. P., & Malhi, Y. (2019). The world’s tallest tropical tree in three dimensions. Frontiers in Forests and Global Change, 2, [32]. https://doi.org/10.3389/ffgc.2019.00032

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abstract = "Here we report the recent discovery of the world{\textquoteright}s tallest tropical tree (Shorea faguetiana), possibly the world{\textquoteright}s tallest angiosperm (flowering plant), located in the rainforests of Sabah, Malaysian Borneo. In addition, we provide a novel three-dimensional exploration of the dimensions of this remarkable tree and use these data to speculate on what drives the limits of tree height. Through consideration of both mechanical (risk of wind damage) and ecophysiological constraints we argue that this tree is close to the maximum height possible for angiosperms, around 100 m, and discuss more broadly what the nature and location of this tree imply about the limits to tree height. We propose to name this remarkable tree “Menara”, Malay for “tower{"}.",

keywords = "tree height, tropical forests, limits to height, angiosperm, LIDAR - remote sensing, terrestrial laser scanning, UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle)",

author = "Alexander Shenkin and Christopher Chandler and Doreen Boyd and Tobias Jackson and {bin Jami}, Jamiluddin and Mathias Disney and Noreen Majalap and Reuben Nilus and Giles Foody and Glen Reynolds and Phil Wilkes and Mark Cutler and {Van Der Heijden}, {Geertje M.} and David Burslem and David Coomes and Bentley, {Lisa Patrick} and Yadvinder Malhi",

note = "We would like to thank NERC for funding the airborne remote sensing campaign (HMTF grant NE/K016377/1 to the BALI consortium, YM, DC and DB) + direct access grant to MC, DSB, GM and DB), analyses (grants NE/P004806/1 to MC, DSB, GF, DB, GH, and NE/I528477/1 to GH, DSB, GF), and ground-based work (grant NE/P012337/1 to YM, MD and LPB); an ERC Advanced Investigator Award (321131) to YM for funding the UAV work; LAStools{\textquoteright} LASmoons program for a free academic license; and an Anne McLaren Research fellowship by the University of Nottingham to GH for funding the tree climbing. YM is supported by the Jackson Foundation. Data availability statement Generated Statement: The datasets generated for this study are available on request to the corresponding author.",

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doi = "10.3389/ffgc.2019.00032",

language = "English",

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T1 - The world’s tallest tropical tree in three dimensions

AU - Shenkin, Alexander

AU - Chandler, Christopher

AU - Boyd, Doreen

AU - Jackson, Tobias

AU - bin Jami, Jamiluddin

AU - Disney, Mathias

AU - Majalap, Noreen

AU - Nilus, Reuben

AU - Foody, Giles

AU - Reynolds, Glen

AU - Wilkes, Phil

AU - Cutler, Mark

AU - Van Der Heijden, Geertje M.

AU - Burslem, David

AU - Coomes, David

AU - Bentley, Lisa Patrick

AU - Malhi, Yadvinder

N1 - We would like to thank NERC for funding the airborne remote sensing campaign (HMTF grant NE/K016377/1 to the BALI consortium, YM, DC and DB) + direct access grant to MC, DSB, GM and DB), analyses (grants NE/P004806/1 to MC, DSB, GF, DB, GH, and NE/I528477/1 to GH, DSB, GF), and ground-based work (grant NE/P012337/1 to YM, MD and LPB); an ERC Advanced Investigator Award (321131) to YM for funding the UAV work; LAStools’ LASmoons program for a free academic license; and an Anne McLaren Research fellowship by the University of Nottingham to GH for funding the tree climbing. YM is supported by the Jackson Foundation. Data availability statement Generated Statement: The datasets generated for this study are available on request to the corresponding author.

PY - 2019/6/18

Y1 - 2019/6/18

N2 - Here we report the recent discovery of the world’s tallest tropical tree (Shorea faguetiana), possibly the world’s tallest angiosperm (flowering plant), located in the rainforests of Sabah, Malaysian Borneo. In addition, we provide a novel three-dimensional exploration of the dimensions of this remarkable tree and use these data to speculate on what drives the limits of tree height. Through consideration of both mechanical (risk of wind damage) and ecophysiological constraints we argue that this tree is close to the maximum height possible for angiosperms, around 100 m, and discuss more broadly what the nature and location of this tree imply about the limits to tree height. We propose to name this remarkable tree “Menara”, Malay for “tower".

AB - Here we report the recent discovery of the world’s tallest tropical tree (Shorea faguetiana), possibly the world’s tallest angiosperm (flowering plant), located in the rainforests of Sabah, Malaysian Borneo. In addition, we provide a novel three-dimensional exploration of the dimensions of this remarkable tree and use these data to speculate on what drives the limits of tree height. Through consideration of both mechanical (risk of wind damage) and ecophysiological constraints we argue that this tree is close to the maximum height possible for angiosperms, around 100 m, and discuss more broadly what the nature and location of this tree imply about the limits to tree height. We propose to name this remarkable tree “Menara”, Malay for “tower".

KW - tree height

KW - tropical forests

KW - limits to height

KW - angiosperm

KW - LIDAR - remote sensing

KW - terrestrial laser scanning

KW - UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle)

UR - http://www.mendeley.com/research/worlds-tallest-tropical-tree-three-dimensions

U2 - 10.3389/ffgc.2019.00032

DO - 10.3389/ffgc.2019.00032

M3 - Article

SN - 2624-893X

VL - 2

JO - Frontiers in Forests and Global Change

JF - Frontiers in Forests and Global Change

M1 - 32

ER -

The world’s tallest tropical tree in three dimensions

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Keywords

UN SDGs

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