If the complex structures on the curves in the sequence do not vary, only bubbles can occur; nodes can occur only if the complex structures on the domain are allowed to vary. Usually, the energy bound is achieved by considering a symplectic manifold with compatible almost-complex structure as the target, and assuming that curves to lie in a fixed homology class in the target. This is because the energy of such a pseudoholomorphic curve is given by the integral of the target symplectic form over the curve, and thus by evaluating the cohomology class of that symplectic form on the homology class of the curve. The finiteness of the bubble tree follows from (positive) lower bounds on the energy contributed by a holomorphic sphere.
