Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Commons^™

The Motion Of Trees In The Wind: A Data Synthesis, Toby D. Jackson, Sarab Sethi, Ebba Dellwik, Nikolas Angelou, Amanda Bunce, Tim Van Emmerick, Marine Duperat, Jean-Claude Ruel, Axel Wellpott, Brian Kane

Environmental Conservation Faculty Publication Series

Interactions between wind and trees control energy exchanges between the atmosphere and forest canopies. This energy exchange can lead to the widespread damage of trees, and wind is a key disturbance agent in many of the world's forests. However, most research on this topic has focused on conifer plantations, where risk management is economically important, rather than broadleaf forests, which dominate the forest carbon cycle. This study brings together tree motion time-series data to systematically evaluate the factors influencing tree responses to wind loading, including data from both broadleaf and coniferous trees in forests and open environments. We found that …