Variation in above-ground forest biomass across broad climatic gradients

AimAn understanding of the relationship between forest biomass and climate is needed to predict the impacts of climate change on carbon stores.Biomass patterns have been characterized at geographically or climatically restricted scales,making it unclear if biomass is limited by climate in any general way at continental to global scales.Using a dataset spanning multiple climatic regions we evaluate the generality of published biomass‐climate correlations.We also combine metabolic theory and hydraulic limits to plant growth to first derive and then test predictions for how forest biomass should vary with maximum individual tree biomass and the ecosystem water deficit.

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