Title: Tree health and physiology in a changing environment

Author: Shortle, Walter C.; Smith, Kevin T.; Minocha, Rakesh; Minocha, Subhash; Wargo, Philip M.; Vogt, Kristina A.

Year: 2000

Publication: In: Mickler, Robert A.; Birdsey, Richard A.; Hom, John, eds. Responses of northern U.S. forests to environmental change. Ecological studies 139. New York: Springer-Verlag: 229-274.

Abstract: A tree is a large, long-lived, perennial, compartmented, woody, shedding, walling plant. This definition is based on new tree biology concepts (Shigo, 1986a,b, 1991) and explains much about how mature trees function through their unique structure. When the tree begins its life, it is mostly leaf in mass (Fig. 7.la). As a tree grows in stature, it becomes mostly stem in mass and the foliage represents only a few percent of the total mass.