Large-scale geographical variations and climatic controls on crown architecture traits

Trees under different environmental conditions can show vast diversity in crown architectures. Understanding patterns and proximate causes of such diversity is a central question in plant ecology, with important implications for predicting future vegetation dynamics with climate change. Here, we combined the cutting-edge terrestrial laser scanning technology and field measurements to investigate the role of crown architecture in the evolutionary strategy development of <i>Quercus mongolica</i> trees in northern China with large climate gradients. Our findings provide new insights on the hypothesis of how crown architecture traits coordinated with trunk and leaf traits to balance the light and water demands of a tree, and highlight the significance of long-neglected crown architecture in tree evolutionary strategy, with important implications in future vegetation dynamic prediction studies. The uploaded datasets include the data for Figure 4-8, Figure S2 and Figure S4 in the paper.