Effects of biophysical constraints, climate and phylogeny on forest shrub allometries along an altitudinal gradient in Northeast China.

ABSTRACT: Whether there is a general allometry law across plant species with different sizes and under different environment has long been controversial and shrubs are particularly useful to examine these questions. Here we sampled 939 individuals from 50 forest shrub species along a large altitudinal gradient. We tested several allometry models with four relationships simultaneously (between stem diameter, height, leaf, stem and aboveground biomass), including geometric, elastic and stress similarity, and metabolic scaling theory's predictions on small plants (MST_s) and trees (MST_t). We also tested if allometric exponents change markedly with climate and phylogeny. The predicted exponents of MST_t, elastic similarity and stress similarity (models for trees) were not

SUBMITTER: Sun H 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5339776 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature