Sapling growth and survivorship as a function of light in a mesic forest of southeast Texas, USA.

For seven species in a mature mesic forest in southeast Texas, we estimated species-specific parameters representing radial growth in high light and low light for tree saplings. Shade-intolerant species had higher asymptotic growth rates and lower low-light growth than tolerant species. Inspection of species positions on graphs of low-light growth versus high-light growth suggested that there was a trade-off between these two processes across species.