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Allometric scaling of leaf mass based on the pipe model theory for woody plant species

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Abstract

There is an exceptional case in which Shinozaki’s pipe model predictions should not explain that the allometric scaling exponent between foliage mass and stem diameter at the crown base is bigger than 2 empirically. This study proposes an allometric scaling model with components f and b, which are the scaling exponent between the sapwood area and stem cross-sectional area and foliage mass and the stem cross-sectional area at crown base, respectively. The scaling exponent f of sapwood area versus stem diameter at the crown base has no effect on leaf mass versus stem diameter at the crown base, while the scaling exponent b has effects on leaf mass versus stem diameter at the crown base. Because the value of b is greater than unity, this scaling model predicts that the diameters of conduits at the crown base widen with tree size, indicating tip–base widening of conduits. Because the proportion of sapwood area remains constant (or f = 0) across sizes, the assumption of Shinozaki’s pipe model theory appears to apply to the case f = 0.

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Acknowledgements

I thank the staff of the Nagoya Regional Forest Office and the Midorigaoka Nursery attached to the Gifu District Forest Office for providing the seedlings, and the staff of Nagoya University Forest for the use of their facilities. I also thank the reviewers, especially Matiss Castorena, University of Arizona, for their invaluable comments.

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  1. Laboratory of Forest Ecology, Graduate School of Bioagricultural Sciences, Nagoya University, Nagoya, 464-8601, Japan

    Kazuharu Ogawa

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  1. Kazuharu Ogawa
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The author (KO) designed research, collected the data, analyzed them, and wrote the paper.

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Correspondence to Kazuharu Ogawa.

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Communicated by Hans Pretzsch.

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Ogawa, K. Allometric scaling of leaf mass based on the pipe model theory for woody plant species. Eur J Forest Res 141, 481–487 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10342-022-01455-7

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