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Natural disturbance-based management (NDBM) is hypothesized to maintain managed forest ecosystem integrity by reducing differences between natural and managed forests. The effectiveness of this approach often entails local comparisons of species composition or diversity for a variety of biota from managed and unmanaged forests. Understory vegetation is regularly the focus of such comparison because of its importance in nutrient cycling, forest regeneration, and for wildlife. However, larger scale comparisons between regions with distinct species assemblages may require a trait-based approach to better understand understory responses to disturbance. We compared the long-term effects of retention harvesting on understory vegetation in two large experimental study sites located in eastern and western regions of the Canadian boreal forest. These sites included the Sylviculture en Aménagement Forestier Ecosystémique (SAFE) experiment and the Ecosystem Management Emulating Natural Disturbance (EMEND) experiment, located in the eastern and western regions of Canada, respectively. EMEND and SAFE share common boreal understory species but have distinct tree communities, soils, and climate. Both experiments were designed to evaluate how increasing tree retention after harvest affects biodiversity. Here, we examined taxonomic richness, functional diversity, and functional composition (using community trait mean values) of understory plant communities, and also examine intraspecific trait variability (ITV) for five species common and abundant in both experiments. We observed the limited impacts of retention level on richness, functional diversity, and functional composition of understory plants 20 years postharvest. However, ITV of leaf morphological traits varied between retention levels within each experiment, depending on the species identity. Common species had different functional responses to retention level, showing species-specific reactions to environmental variation. Our result suggests that understory plant communities in the boreal forest achieve resilience to disturbance both in terms of interspecific and intraspecific functional trait diversity. Such diversity may be key to maintaining understory biodiversity in the face of future disturbances and environmental change. Our results reveal the significance of ITV in plant communities for understanding responses to forest harvesting and the importance of choosing appropriate traits when studying species responses to the environment., (© 2024 The Author(s). Ecological Applications published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of The Ecological Society of America.)

Recent droughts have strongly impacted forest ecosystems and are projected to increase in frequency, intensity, and duration in the future together with continued warming. While evidence suggests that tree diversity can regulate drought impacts in natural forests, few studies examine whether mixed tree plantations are more resistant to the impacts of severe droughts. Using natural variations in leaf carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) isotopic ratios, that is δ 13 C and δ 15 N, as proxies for drought response, we analyzed the effects of tree species richness on the functional responses of tree plantations to the pan-European 2018 summer drought in seven European tree diversity experiments. We found that leaf δ 13 C decreased with increasing tree species richness, indicating less drought stress. This effect was not related to drought intensity, nor desiccation tolerance of the tree species. Leaf δ 15 N increased with drought intensity, indicating a shift toward more open N cycling as water availability diminishes. Additionally, drought intensity was observed to alter the influence of tree species richness on leaf δ 15 N from weakly negative under low drought intensity to weakly positive under high drought intensity. Overall, our findings suggest that dual leaf isotope analysis helps understand the interaction between drought, nutrients, and species richness., (© 2024 The Authors. New Phytologist © 2024 New Phytologist Foundation.)

Tree diversity can promote both predator abundance and diversity. However, whether this translates into increased predation and top-down control of herbivores across predator taxonomic groups and contrasting environmental conditions remains unresolved. We used a global network of tree diversity experiments (TreeDivNet) spread across three continents and three biomes to test the effects of tree species richness on predation across varying climatic conditions of temperature and precipitation. We recorded bird and arthropod predation attempts on plasticine caterpillars in monocultures and tree species mixtures. Both tree species richness and temperature increased predation by birds but not by arthropods. Furthermore, the effects of tree species richness on predation were consistent across the studied climatic gradient. Our findings provide evidence that tree diversity strengthens top-down control of insect herbivores by birds, underscoring the need to implement conservation strategies that safeguard tree diversity to sustain ecosystem services provided by natural enemies in forests., (© 2024 The Authors. Ecology Letters published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

Plant diversity effects on community productivity often increase over time. Whether the strengthening of diversity effects is caused by temporal shifts in species-level overyielding (i.e., higher species-level productivity in diverse communities compared with monocultures) remains unclear. Here, using data from 65 grassland and forest biodiversity experiments, we show that the temporal strength of diversity effects at the community scale is underpinned by temporal changes in the species that yield. These temporal trends of species-level overyielding are shaped by plant ecological strategies, which can be quantitatively delimited by functional traits. In grasslands, the temporal strengthening of biodiversity effects on community productivity was associated with increasing biomass overyielding of resource-conservative species increasing over time, and with overyielding of species characterized by fast resource acquisition either decreasing or increasing. In forests, temporal trends in species overyielding differ when considering above- versus belowground resource acquisition strategies. Overyielding in stem growth decreased for species with high light capture capacity but increased for those with high soil resource acquisition capacity. Our results imply that a diversity of species with different, and potentially complementary, ecological strategies is beneficial for maintaining community productivity over time in both grassland and forest ecosystems., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

The synthesis of a large body of evidence from field experiments suggests more diverse plant communities are more productive as well as more resistant to the effects of climatic extremes like drought. However, this view is strongly based on data from grasslands due to the limited empirical evidence from tree diversity experiments. Here we report on the relationship between tree diversity and productivity over 10 years in a field experiment established in 2005 that was then affected by the 2018 mega-drought in central Europe. Across a number of years, tree species diversity and productivity were significantly positively related; however, the slope switched to negative in the year of the drought. Net diversity effects increased through time, with complementarity effects making greater contributions to the net diversity effect than selection effects. Complementarity effects were clearly positive in three- and five-species mixtures before the drought (2012-2016) but were found to decrease in the year of the drought. Selection effects were clearly positive in 2016 and remained positive in the drought year 2018 in two-, three-, and five-species mixtures. The survival of Norway spruce (Picea abies) plummeted in response to the drought, and a negative relationship between species diversity and spruce survival was found. Taken together, our findings suggest that tree diversity per se may not buffer communities against the impacts of extreme drought and that tree species composition and the drought tolerance of tree species (i.e., species identity) will be important determinants of community productivity as the prevalence of drought increases., (© 2024 The Authors. Global Change Biology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

It is commonly expected that exotic plants experience reduced herbivory, but experimental evidence for such enemy release is still controversial. One reason for conflicting results might be that community context has rarely been accounted for, although the surrounding plant diversity may moderate enemy release. Here, we tested the effects of focal tree origin and surrounding tree diversity on herbivore abundance and leaf damage in a cross-Atlantic tree-diversity experiment in Canada and Germany. We evaluated six European tree species paired with six North American congeners in both their native and exotic range, expecting lower herbivory for the exotic tree species in each pair at each site. Such reciprocal experiments have long been called for, but have not been realized thus far. In addition to a thorough evaluation of overall enemy release effects, we tested whether enemy release effects changed with the surrounding tree diversity. Herbivore abundance was indeed consistently lower on exotics across all six tree genera (12 comparisons). This effect of exotic status was independent of the continent, phylogenetic relatedness, and surrounding tree diversity. In contrast, leaf damage associated with generalist leaf chewers was consistently higher on North American tree species. Interestingly, several species of European weevils were the most abundant leaf chewers on both continents and the dominant herbivores at the Canadian site. Thus, most observed leaf damage is likely to reflect the effect of generalist herbivores that feed heavily on plant species with which they have not evolved. At the German site, sap suckers were the dominant herbivores and showed a pattern consistent with enemy release. Taken together, the consistently lower herbivory on exotics on both continents is not purely a pattern of enemy release in the strictest sense, but to some degree additionally reflects the susceptibility of native plants to invasive herbivores. In conclusion, our cross-Atlantic study is consistent with the idea that nonnative trees have generally reduced herbivory, regardless of tree community diversity and species identity, but for different reasons depending on the dominant herbivore guild., (© 2023 The Authors. Ecology published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of The Ecological Society of America.)

The biodiversity-ecosystem functioning concept asserts that processes in ecosystems are markedly influenced by species richness and other facets of biodiversity. However, biodiversity-ecosystem functioning studies have been largely restricted to single ecosystems, ignoring the importance of functional links - such as the exchange of matter, energy, and organisms - between coupled ecosystems. Here we present a basic concept and outline three pathways of cross-boundary biodiversity effects on ecosystem processes and propose an agenda to assess such effects, focusing on terrestrial-aquatic linkages to illustrate the case. This cross-boundary perspective of biodiversity-ecosystem functioning relationships presents a promising frontier for biodiversity and ecosystem science with repercussions for the conservation, restoration, and management of biodiversity and ecosystems from local to landscape scales., Competing Interests: Declaration of interests No interests are declared., (Copyright © 2021 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.)

Unprecedented tree dieback across Central Europe caused by recent global change-type drought events highlights the need for a better mechanistic understanding of drought-induced tree mortality. Although numerous physiological risk factors have been identified, the importance of two principal mechanisms, hydraulic failure and carbon starvation, is still debated. It further remains largely unresolved how the local neighborhood composition affects individual mortality risk. We studied 9435 young trees of 12 temperate species planted in a diversity experiment in 2013 to assess how hydraulic traits, carbon dynamics, pest infestation, tree height and neighborhood competition influence individual mortality risk. Following the most extreme global change-type drought since record in 2018, one third of these trees died. Across species, hydraulic safety margins (HSMs) were negatively and a shift towards a higher sugar fraction in the non-structural carbohydrate (NSC) pool positively associated with mortality risk. Moreover, trees infested by bark beetles had a higher mortality risk, and taller trees a lower mortality risk. Most neighborhood interactions were beneficial, although neighborhood effects were highly species-specific. Species that suffered more from drought, especially Larix spp. and Betula spp., tended to increase the survival probability of their neighbors and vice versa. While severe tissue dehydration marks the final stage of drought-induced tree mortality, we show that hydraulic failure is interrelated with a series of other, mutually inclusive processes. These include shifts in NSC pools driven by osmotic adjustment and/or starch depletion as well as pest infestation and are modulated by the size and species identity of a tree and its neighbors. A more holistic view that accounts for multiple causes of drought-induced tree mortality is required to improve predictions of trends in global forest dynamics and to identify mutually beneficial species combinations., (© 2022 The Authors. Global Change Biology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

Droughts can strongly affect grassland productivity and biodiversity, but responses differ widely. Nutrient availability may be a critical factor explaining this variation, but is often ignored in analyses of drought responses. Here, we used a standardized nutrient addition experiment covering 10 European grasslands to test if full-factorial nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium addition affected plant community responses to inter-annual variation in drought stress and to the extreme summer drought of 2018 in Europe. We found that nutrient addition amplified detrimental drought effects on community aboveground biomass production. Drought effects also differed between functional groups, with a negative effect on graminoid but not forb biomass production. Our results imply that eutrophication in grasslands, which promotes dominance of drought-sensitive graminoids over forbs, amplifies detrimental drought effects. In terms of climate change adaptation, agricultural management would benefit from taking into account differential drought impacts on fertilized versus unfertilized grasslands, which differ in ecosystem services they provide to society., (© 2021 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

There is increasing evidence that mixed-species forests can provide multiple ecosystem services at a higher level than their monospecific counterparts. However, most studies concerning tree diversity and ecosystem functioning relationships use data from forest inventories (under noncontrolled conditions) or from very young plantation experiments. Here, we investigated temporal dynamics of diversity-productivity relationships and diversity-stability relationships in the oldest tropical tree diversity experiment. Sardinilla was established in Panama in 2001, with 22 plots that form a gradient in native tree species richness of one-, two-, three- and five-species communities. Using annual data describing tree diameters and heights, we calculated basal area increment as the proxy of tree productivity. We combined tree neighbourhood- and community-level analyses and tested the effects of both species diversity and structural diversity on productivity and its temporal stability. General patterns were consistent across both scales indicating that tree-tree interactions in neighbourhoods drive observed diversity effects. From 2006 to 2016, mean overyielding (higher productivity in mixtures than in monocultures) was 25%-30% in two- and three-species mixtures and 50% in five-species stands. Tree neighbourhood diversity enhanced community productivity but the effect of species diversity was stronger and increased over time, whereas the effect of structural diversity declined. Temporal stability of community productivity increased with species diversity via two principle mechanisms: asynchronous responses of species to environmental variability and overyielding. Overyielding in mixtures was highest during a strong El Niño-related drought. Overall, positive diversity-productivity and diversity-stability relationships predominated, with the highest productivity and stability at the highest levels of diversity. These results provide new insights into mixing effects in diverse, tropical plantations and highlight the importance of analyses of temporal dynamics for our understanding of the complex relationships between diversity, productivity and stability. Under climate change, mixed-species forests may provide both high levels and high stability of production., (© 2019 The Authors. Global Change Biology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

Concern about the functional consequences of unprecedented loss in biodiversity has prompted biodiversity-ecosystem functioning (BEF) research to become one of the most active fields of ecological research in the past 25 years. Hundreds of experiments have manipulated biodiversity as an independent variable and found compelling support that the functioning of ecosystems increases with the diversity of their ecological communities. This research has also identified some of the mechanisms underlying BEF relationships, some context-dependencies of the strength of relationships, as well as implications for various ecosystem services that mankind depends upon. In this paper, we argue that a multitrophic perspective of biotic interactions in random and non-random biodiversity change scenarios is key to advance future BEF research and to address some of its most important remaining challenges. We discuss that the study and the quantification of multitrophic interactions in space and time facilitates scaling up from small-scale biodiversity manipulations and ecosystem function assessments to management-relevant spatial scales across ecosystem boundaries. We specifically consider multitrophic conceptual frameworks to understand and predict the context-dependency of BEF relationships. Moreover, we highlight the importance of the eco-evolutionary underpinnings of multitrophic BEF relationships. We outline that FAIR data (meeting the standards of findability, accessibility, interoperability, and reusability) and reproducible processing will be key to advance this field of research by making it more integrative. Finally, we show how these BEF insights may be implemented for ecosystem management, society, and policy. Given that human well-being critically depends on the multiple services provided by diverse, multitrophic communities, integrating the approaches of evolutionary ecology, community ecology, and ecosystem ecology in future BEF research will be key to refine conservation targets and develop sustainable management strategies.

Freshwater bacterioplankton communities are influenced by the inputs of material and bacteria from the surrounding landscape, yet few studies have investigated how different terrestrial inputs affect bacterioplankton. We examined whether the addition of soils collected under various tree species combinations differentially influences lake bacterial communities. Lake water was incubated for 6 days following addition of five different soils. We assessed the taxonomic composition (16S rRNA gene sequencing) and metabolic activity (Biolog Ecoplates) of lake bacteria with and without soil addition, and compared these to initial soil communities. Soil bacterial assemblages showed a strong influence of tree composition, but such community differences were not reflected in the structure of lake communities that developed during the experiment. Bacterial taxa showing the largest abundance increases during incubation were initially present in both lake water and across most soils, and were related to Cytophagales, Burkholderiales and Rhizobiales. No clear metabolic profiles based on inoculum source were found, yet soil-amended communities used 60% more substrate than non-inoculated communities. Overall, we show that terrestrial inputs influence aquatic communities by stimulating the growth and activity of certain ubiquitous taxa distributed across the terrestrial-aquatic continuum, yet different forest soils did not cause predictable changes in lake bacterioplankton assemblages.

Rising global temperatures are suggested to be drivers of shifts in tree species ranges. The resulting changes in community composition may negatively impact forest ecosystem function. However, long-term shifts in tree species ranges remain poorly documented. We test for shifts in the northern range limits of 16 temperate tree species in Quebec, Canada, using forest inventory data spanning three decades, 15° of longitude and 7° of latitude. Range shifts were correlated with climate warming and dispersal traits to understand potential mechanisms underlying changes. Shifts were calculated as the change in the 95th percentile of latitudinal occurrence between two inventory periods (1970-1978, 2000-2012) and for two life stages: saplings and adults. We also examined sapling and adult range offsets within each inventory, and changes in the offset through time. Tree species ranges shifted predominantly northward, although species responses varied. As expected shifts were greater for tree saplings, 0.34 km yr -1 , than for adults, 0.13 km yr -1 . Range limits were generally further north for adults compared to saplings, but the difference diminished through time, consistent with patterns observed for range shifts within each life stage. This suggests caution should be exercised when interpreting geographic range offsets between life stages as evidence of range shifts in the absence of temporal data. Species latitudinal velocities were on average <50% of the velocity required to equal the spatial velocity of climate change and were mostly unrelated to dispersal traits. Finally, our results add to the body of evidence suggesting tree species are mostly limited in their capacity to track climate warming, supporting concerns that warming will negatively impact the functioning of forest ecosystems., (© 2017 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

Background and Aims: Despite a longstanding interest in variation in tree species vulnerability to ice storm damage, quantitative analyses of the influence of crown structure on within-crown variation in ice accretion are rare. In particular, the effect of prior interception by higher branches on lower branch accumulation remains unstudied. The aim of this study was to test the hypothesis that intra-crown ice accretion can be predicted by a measure of the degree of sheltering by neighbouring branches., Methods: Freezing rain was artificially applied to Acer platanoides L., and in situ branch-ice thickness was measured directly and from LiDAR point clouds. Two models of freezing rain interception were developed: 'IceCube', which uses point clouds to relate ice accretion to a voxel-based index (sheltering factor; SF) of the sheltering effect of branch elements above a measurement point; and 'IceTree', a simulation model for in silico evaluation of the interception pattern of freezing rain in virtual tree crowns., Key Results: Intra-crown radial ice accretion varied strongly, declining from the tips to the bases of branches and from the top to the base of the crown. SF for branches varied strongly within the crown, and differences among branches were consistent for a range of model parameters. Intra-crown variation in ice accretion on branches was related to SF (R(2) = 0·46), with in silico results from IceTree supporting empirical relationships from IceCube., Conclusions: Empirical results and simulations confirmed a key role for crown architecture in determining intra-crown patterns of ice accretion. As suspected, the concentration of freezing rain droplets is attenuated by passage through the upper crown, and thus higher branches accumulate more ice than lower branches. This is the first step in developing a model that can provide a quantitative basis for investigating intra-crown and inter-specific variation in freezing rain damage., (© The Author 2016. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Annals of Botany Company. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.)

Detailed 3D plant architectural data have numerous applications in plant science, but many existing approaches for 3D data collection are time-consuming and/or require costly equipment. Recently, there has been rapid growth in the availability of low-cost, 3D cameras and related open source software applications. 3D cameras may provide measurements of key components of plant architecture such as stem diameters and lengths, however, few tests of 3D cameras for the measurement of plant architecture have been conducted. Here, we measured Salix branch segments ranging from 2-13 mm in diameter with an Asus Xtion camera to quantify the limits and accuracy of branch diameter measurement with a 3D camera. By scanning at a variety of distances we also quantified the effect of scanning distance. In addition, we also test the sensitivity of the program KinFu for continuous 3D object scanning and modeling as well as other similar software to accurately record stem diameters and capture plant form (<3 m in height). Given its ability to accurately capture the diameter of branches >6 mm, Asus Xtion may provide a novel method for the collection of 3D data on the branching architecture of woody plants. Improvements in camera measurement accuracy and available software are likely to further improve the utility of 3D cameras for plant sciences in the future.

In the eastern hardwood forests of North America ice storms are an important disturbance event. Ice storms strongly influence community dynamics as well as urban infrastructure via catastrophic branch failure; further, the severity and frequency of ice storms are likely to increase with climate change. However, despite a long-standing interest into the effects of freezing rain on forests, the process of ice accretion and thus ice loading on branches remains poorly understood. This is because a number of challenges have prevented in situ measurements of ice on branches, including: 1) accessing and measuring branches in tall canopies, 2) limitations to travel during and immediately after events, and 3) the unpredictability of ice storms. Here, utilizing a novel combination of outdoor experimental icing, manual measurements and terrestrial laser scanning (TLS), we perform the first in situ measurements of ice accretion on branches at differing heights in a tree crown and with increasing duration of exposure. We found that TLS can reproduce both branch and iced branch diameters with high fidelity, but some TLS instruments do not detect ice. Contrary to the expectations of ice accretion models, radial accretion varied sharply within tree crowns. Initially, radial ice accretion was similar throughout the crown, but after 6.5 hours of irrigation (second scanning) radial ice accretion was much greater on upper branches than on lower (∼factor of 3). The slope of the change in radial ice accretion along branches increased with duration of exposure and was significantly greater at the second scanning compared to the first. We conclude that outdoor icing experiments coupled with the use of TLS provide a robust basis for evaluation of models of ice accretion and breakage in tree crowns, facilitating estimation of the limiting breaking stress of branches by accurate measurements of ice loads.

Deposition of reactive nitrogen (N) from human activities has large effects on temperate forests where low natural N availability limits productivity but is not known to affect tropical forests where natural N availability is often much greater. Leaf N and the ratio of N isotopes (δ(15)N) increased substantially in a moist forest in Panama between ~1968 and 2007, as did tree-ring δ(15)N in a dry forest in Thailand over the past century. A decade of fertilization of a nearby Panamanian forest with N caused similar increases in leaf N and δ(15)N. Therefore, our results indicate regional increases in N availability due to anthropogenic N deposition. Atmospheric nitrogen dioxide measurements and increased emissions of anthropogenic reactive N over tropical land areas suggest that these changes are widespread in tropical forests.

Seed dispersal by wind is a critical yet poorly understood process in tropical forest trees. How tree size and fecundity affect this process at the population level remains largely unknown because of insufficient replication across adults. We measured seed dispersal by the endangered neotropical timber species big-leaf mahogany (Swietenia macrophylla King, Meliaceae) in the Brazilian Amazon at 25 relatively isolated trees using multiple 1-m wide belt transects extended 100 m downwind. Tree diameter and fecundity correlated positively with increased seed shadow extent; but in combination large, high fecundity trees contributed disproportionately to longer-distance dispersal events (>60 m). Among three empirical models fitted to seed density vs. distance in one dimension, the Student-t (2Dt) generally fit best (compared to the negative exponential and inverse power). When seedfall downwind was modelled in two dimensions using a normalised sample, it peaked furthest downwind (c. 25 m) for large, high-fecundity trees; with the inverse Gaussian and Weibull functions providing comparable fits that were slightly better than the lognormal. Although most seeds fell within 30 m of parent trees, relatively few juveniles were found within this distance, resulting in juvenile-to-seed ratios peaking at c. 35-45 m. Using the 2Dt model fits to predict seed densities downwind, coupled with known fecundity data for 2000-2009, we evaluated potential Swietenia regeneration near adults (≤30 m dispersal) and beyond 30 m. Mean seed arrival into canopy gaps >30 m downwind was more than 3× greater for large, high fecundity trees than small, high-fecundity trees. Tree seed production did not necessarily scale up proportionately with diameter, and was not consistent across years, and this resulting intraspecific variation can have important consequences for local patterns of dispersal in forests. Our results have important implications for management and conservation of big-leaf mahogany populations, and may apply to other threatened wind-dispersed Meliaceae trees.

Background and Aims: Wood density is a key variable for understanding life history strategies in tropical trees. Differences in wood density and its radial variation were related to the shade-tolerance of six canopy tree species in seasonally dry tropical forest in Thailand. In addition, using tree ring measurements, the influence of tree size, age and annual increment on radial density gradients was analysed., Methods: Wood density was determined from tree cores using X-ray densitometry. X-ray films were digitized and images were measured, resulting in a continuous density profile for each sample. Mixed models were then developed to analyse differences in average wood density and in radial gradients in density among the six tree species, as well as the effects of tree age, size and annual increment on radial increases in Melia azedarach., Key Results: Average wood density generally reflected differences in shade-tolerance, varying by nearly a factor of two. Radial gradients occurred in all species, ranging from an increase of (approx. 70%) in the shade-intolerant Melia azedarach to a decrease of approx. 13% in the shade-tolerant Neolitsea obtusifolia, but the slopes of radial gradients were generally unrelated to shade-tolerance. For Melia azedarach, radial increases were most-parsimoniously explained by log-transformed tree age and annual increment rather than by tree size., Conclusions: The results indicate that average wood density generally reflects differences in shade-tolerance in seasonally dry tropical forests; however, inferences based on wood density alone are potentially misleading for species with complex life histories. In addition, the findings suggest that a 'whole-tree' view of life history and biomechanics is important for understanding patterns of radial variation in wood density. Finally, accounting for wood density gradients is likely to improve the accuracy of estimates of stem biomass and carbon in tropical trees.

The widespread occurrence of age-related changes in leaf morphology and allocation suggests that the leaf area index of individual trees (intra-crown LAI) may decline late in ontogeny. We used direct, within-canopy measurements to quantify the LAI of canopy trees with exposed crowns of two temperate deciduous species. Intra-crown LAI declined from approximately 7 to 4 in Acer saccharum, and from approximately 9.5 to 6.5 in Betula alleghaniensis, as tree size increased (from 15 to 72 cm diameter at breast height [dbh]). For A. saccharum, age (which varied from 30 to 160 years) was a significantly better predictor of LAI decline than dbh. We also modeled the effect of ontogenetic declines in LAI on understory light availability and found that light transmission increases significantly as canopy trees grow and mature. Our results thus suggest that gradual declines in LAI with tree age may play an important and overlooked role in contributing to the heterogeneity of sub-canopy light regimes in mature forests.