Plants store nonstructural carbohydrates (NSCs) like starch, fructans and soluble sugars to support metabolism, stress tolerance and defence during low photosynthesis, ultimately influencing their growth and longevity. However, the relationship between NSC composition and growth or persistence in wild plants remains unclear. This study explores trade-offs between growth, longevity and NSCs in 201 plant species across diverse climates in the Western USA, spanning 500-4300 m in elevation and 80-1000 mm in precipitation. Annual growth rates and plant ages were derived from the ring widths of semidesert, steppe and alpine herbs and shrubs, along with NSC profiles in their roots and rhizomes. Results showed an inverse relationship between growth and age, with total NSC, starch and fructan levels negatively correlated with growth, supporting the growth-longevity and growth-storage trade-off hypotheses. Conversely, higher growth rates were linked to soluble sugars, suggesting that climate-driven growth limitations alone do not explain increased NSCs. Fructans were positively associated with longevity, especially in long-lived desert shrubs and alpine herbs, underscoring NSCs' active role in survival strategies. These findings challenge the carbon surplus hypothesis, suggesting that plants actively use specific NSCs to balance growth and persistence, with energy-rich sugars promoting growth and osmoprotective fructans enhancing longevity.

• Keywords
• active accumulation, carbon allocation strategies, carbon allocation trade‐offs, longevity, nonstructural carbohydrates, plant growth,
• MeSH
• Fructans metabolism   MeSH
• Plant Roots metabolism   MeSH
• Carbohydrate Metabolism * MeSH
• Climate MeSH
• Plants * metabolism   MeSH
• Starch metabolism   MeSH
• Carbon * metabolism   MeSH
• Plant Development * MeSH
• Publication type
• Journal Article MeSH
• Names of Substances
• Fructans MeSH
• Starch MeSH
• Carbon * MeSH

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Below-ground carbohydrate storage is considered an adaptation of plants aimed at regeneration after disturbance. A theoretical model by Iwasa and Kubo was empirically tested which predicted (1) that storage of carbohydrates scales allometrically with leaf biomass and (2) when the disturbance regime is relaxed, the ratio of storage to leaf biomass increases, as carbohydrates are not depleted by disturbance. METHODS: These ideas were tested on nine herbaceous species from a temperate meadow and the disturbance regime was manipulated to create recently abandoned and mown plots. Just before mowing in June and at the end of the season in October, plants with below-ground organs were sampled. The material was used to assess the pool of total non-structural carbohydrates and leaf biomass. KEY RESULTS: In half of the cases, a mostly isometric relationship between below-ground carbohydrate storage and leaf biomass in meadow plants was found. The ratio of below-ground carbohydrate storage to leaf biomass did not change when the disturbance regime was less intensive than that for which the plants were adapted. CONCLUSIONS: These findings (isometric scaling relationship between below-ground carbohydrate storage and leaf biomass; no effect of a relaxed disturbance regime) imply that storage in herbs is probably governed by factors other than just the disturbance regime applied once in a growing season.

• Keywords
• Abandonment, TNC, below-ground organs, carbohydrate pool, disturbance, forbs, leaf biomass, meadow, mowing, storage to leaf biomass ratio,
• MeSH
• Biomass * MeSH
• Ecosystem * MeSH
• Plant Leaves physiology   MeSH
• Magnoliopsida physiology   MeSH
• Carbohydrate Metabolism * MeSH
• Grassland MeSH
• Publication type
• Journal Article MeSH
• Geographicals
• Czech Republic MeSH