It is generally accepted that animal heartbeat and lifespan are often inversely correlated, however, the relationship between productivity and longevity has not yet been described for trees growing under industrial and pre-industrial climates. Using 1768 annually resolved and absolutely dated ring width measurement series from living and dead conifers that grew in undisturbed, high-elevation sites in the Spanish Pyrenees and the Russian Altai over the past 2000 years, we test the hypothesis of grow fast-die young. We find maximum tree ages are significantly correlated with slow juvenile growth rates. We conclude, the interdependence between higher stem productivity, faster tree turnover, and shorter carbon residence time, reduces the capacity of forest ecosystems to store carbon under a climate warming-induced stimulation of tree growth at policy-relevant timescales.

Departmemt of Geography Johannes Gutenberg University 55099 Mainz Germany

Department of Geography University of Cambridge Cambridge CB2 3EN UK

Department of Physical Geography Stockholm University 10691 Stockholm Sweden

Department of Plant Sciences University of Cambridge Cambridge CB2 3EA UK

Global Change Research Centre and Masaryk University 613 00 Brno Czech Republic

Institute of Botany University of Basel 4056 Basel Switzerland

Institute of Ecology and Geography Siberian Federal University 660041 Krasnoyarsk Russia

Institute of Humanities Siberian Federal University 660041 Krasnoyarsk Russia

Instituto Pirenaico de Ecología 50059 Zaragoza Spain

Sukachev Institute of Forest SB RAS 660036 Krasnoyarsk Russia

Swiss Federal Research Institute 8903 Birmensdorf Switzerland

Erratum v

Nat Commun. 2019 Jun 17;10(1):2660. doi: 10.1038/s41467-019-10731-x. PubMed

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