Resource allocation within trees is a zero-sum game. Unavoidable trade-offs dictate that allocation to growth-promoting functions curtails other functions, generating a gradient of investment in growth versus survival along which tree species align, known as the interspecific growth–mortality trade-off. This paradigm is widely accepted but not well established. Using demographic data for 1,111 tree species across ten tropical forests, we tested the generality of the growth–mortality trade-off and evaluated its underlying drivers using two species-specific parameters describing resource allocation strategies: tolerance of resource limitation and responsiveness of allocation to resource access. Globally, a canonical growth–mortality trade-off emerged, but the trade-off was strongly observed only in less disturbance-prone forests, which contained diverse resource allocation strategies. Only half of disturbance-prone forests, which lacked tolerant species, exhibited the trade-off. Supported by a theoretical model, our findings raise questions about whether the growth–mortality trade-off is a universally applicable organizing framework for understanding tropical forest community structure.

树内的资源分配是一种零和游戏。不可避免的权衡决定了对促进生长功能的分配会削弱其他功能，从而产生生长投资与树种排列的生存梯度，称为种间生长 - 死亡率权衡。这种范式被广泛接受，但还没有得到很好的确立。使用 10 个热带森林中 1,111 种树种的人口统计数据，我们测试了生长-死亡率权衡的普遍性，并使用描述资源分配策略的两个物种特定参数评估了其潜在驱动因素：资源限制的容忍度和资源分配的响应能力使用权。在全球范围内，出现了典型的生长-死亡率权衡，但这种权衡仅在不易受干扰的森林中得到强烈观察，其中包含不同的资源分配策略。只有一半缺乏耐受性物种的易受干扰的森林表现出这种权衡。在理论模型的支持下，我们的研究结果提出了一个问题，即生长-死亡率权衡是否是理解热带森林群落结构的普遍适用的组织框架。