TY - JOUR
T1 - Invariant scaling relationships for interspecific plant biomass production rates and body size
AU - Niklas, Karl J.
AU - Enquist, Brian J.
PY - 2001/2/27
Y1 - 2001/2/27
N2 - The allometric relationships for plant annualized biomass production ("growth") rates, different measures of body size (dry weight and length), and photosynthetic biomass (or pigment concentration) per plant (or cell) are reported for multicellular and unicellular plants representing three algal phyla; aquatic ferns; aquatic and terrestrial herbaceous dicots; and arborescent monocots, dicots, and conifers. Annualized rates of growth G scale as the 3/4-power of body mass M over 20 orders of magnitude of M (i.e., G x M3/4); plant body length L (i.e., cell length or plant height) scales, on average, as the 1/4-power of M over 22 orders of magnitude of M (i.e., L x Ml/4); and photosynthetic biomass Mp scales as the 3/4-power of nonphotosynthetic biomass Mn (i.e., Mp x Mn3/4). Because these scaling relationships are indifferent to phylogenetic affiliation and habitat, they have far-reaching ecological and evolutionary implications (e.g., net primary productivity is predicted to be largely insensitive to community species composition or geological age).
AB - The allometric relationships for plant annualized biomass production ("growth") rates, different measures of body size (dry weight and length), and photosynthetic biomass (or pigment concentration) per plant (or cell) are reported for multicellular and unicellular plants representing three algal phyla; aquatic ferns; aquatic and terrestrial herbaceous dicots; and arborescent monocots, dicots, and conifers. Annualized rates of growth G scale as the 3/4-power of body mass M over 20 orders of magnitude of M (i.e., G x M3/4); plant body length L (i.e., cell length or plant height) scales, on average, as the 1/4-power of M over 22 orders of magnitude of M (i.e., L x Ml/4); and photosynthetic biomass Mp scales as the 3/4-power of nonphotosynthetic biomass Mn (i.e., Mp x Mn3/4). Because these scaling relationships are indifferent to phylogenetic affiliation and habitat, they have far-reaching ecological and evolutionary implications (e.g., net primary productivity is predicted to be largely insensitive to community species composition or geological age).
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U2 - 10.1073/pnas.041590298
DO - 10.1073/pnas.041590298
M3 - Article
C2 - 11226342
AN - SCOPUS:0035956999
SN - 0027-8424
VL - 98
SP - 2922
EP - 2927
JO - Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
JF - Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
IS - 5
ER -