4 Discussion
Competition
for resources among plants generates stress such that some plants adapt
to survive while others gradually die under the stress. To understand
the mechanism of plant performance differences under intraspecific
competition, we studied the scaling relationships at the individual and
branch level from the perspective of canopy structure. The results
indicate that with the deterioration of tree growth vigour,
intraspecifically tree growth in
height with respect to trunk diameter (i.e. the H -Dscaling exponent) decreased, while branch growth in length with respect
to diameter (i.e., the L -d scaling exponent) increased.
This research improved our
understanding of canopy architecture and the mechanisms underlying
competition-induced tree mortality.