Allometry of the quasi-pipe (qPipe) model for estimating tree leaf area and tree leaf mass applied to plant functional types

• Published in: Scientific reports Vol. 13; no. 1; p. 9954
• Main Authors: Sumida, Akihiro, Inagaki, Yoshiyuki, Kajimoto, Takuya, Katsuno-Miyaura, Masumi, Komiyama, Akira, Kurachi, Nahoko, Miyaura, Tomiyasu, Hasegawa, Shigeaki F., Hara, Toshihiko, Ono, Kiyomi, Yamada, Masahito
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 19.06.2023; Nature Publishing Group; Nature Portfolio
• Subjects: 631/158/1144; 631/158/1145; 631/158/2454; 631/449/2668; 704/158; Allometry; Boreal forests; Carbon fixation; Coniferous trees; Deciduous trees; Evergreen trees; Forests; Humanities and Social Sciences; Leaf area; Leaves; multidisciplinary; Plant Leaves; Plants; Rainforests; Science; Science (multidisciplinary); Tracheophyta; Trees
• ISSN: 2045-2322; 2045-2322
• DOI: 10.1038/s41598-023-37112-1

The allometry of the pipe model quantifies the approximate proportionality between the tree leaf amount and the stem cross-sectional area at the crown base ( A CB ). It is useful for estimating and modeling carbon fixation abilities of trees but requires climbing the tree and is thus unsuitable for large-scale studies. Here, we adopted a previously proposed allometry (hereafter the quasi-pipe (qPipe) model allometry) formulating the relationship between the tree leaf amount and a surrogate of A CB , A CB_Est , calculated from tree dimensions measurable from the ground. Using published/unpublished data for 962 trees of 159 species collected between tropical rainforests and boreal forests, we established pipe and qPipe model allometries for evergreen-conifer, deciduous-conifer, evergreen-broadleaf, and deciduous-broadleaf plant functional types (PFTs). For the leaf area per tree (LA), allometric lines on a log–log plane were almost identical among the four PFTs in both models, with slopes of ~ 1. For the leaf mass per tree (LM), however, the allometric lines separated among the four PFTs in both models and had slopes greater than 1, indicating that the proportionality assumed in the pipe model held for LA but not LM. The applicability of the qPipe model in estimating the stand-scale leaf amount was further examined.