Why Does Not the Leaf Weight-Area Allometry of Bamboos Follow the 3/2-Power Law?

ABSTRACT: The principle of similarity (Thompson, 1917) states that the weight of an organism follows the 3/2-power law of its surface area and is proportional to its volume on the condition that the density is constant. However, the allometric relationship between leaf weight and leaf area has been reported to greatly deviate from the 3/2-power law, with the irregularity of leaf density largely ignored for explaining this deviation. Here, we choose 11 bamboo species to explore the allometric relationships among leaf area (A), density (ρ), length (L), thickness (T), and weight (W). Because the edge of a bamboo leaf follows a simplified two-parameter Gielis equation, we could show that A ∝ L² and that A ∝ T². This then allow

SUBMITTER: Lin S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5945892 | biostudies-literature | 2018

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature