Quarter-Power Allometric Scaling in Vascular Plants: Functional Basis and Ecological Consequences

作者：Brian Joseph Enquist, Geoffrey B. West, James H. Brown · 年份：2000 · DOI：10.1093/oso/9780195131413.003.0010 · 被引用次数：82 · 研究领域：Plant Water Relations and Carbon Dynamics、Leaf Properties and Growth Measurement、Tree Root and Stability Studies

Abstract Although there are approximately 230,000 species [78], of vascular plants, all share essentially the same anatomical and physiological design. Vascular plants span well over 12 orders of magnitude in body size. A single Sequoia functions across this entire size range as it develops from seedling to adult tree. There is a rich empirical literature that provides many details of the anatomy and physiology of plants of differing sizes, growth forms, taxonomic groups, and environmental settings (e.g., Shinozaki et al. [99]; Yoda et al. [132]; Whittaker and Woodwell [128]; Shidei and Kira [98]; Cannell [11]; Niklas [74]). Nevertheless, there are few mechanistic models that attempt to link the relationships between whole plant architectural geometry, microscopic anatomy of the vascular system, and the physiological process of fluid flow, either within the different parts of a single plant or among plants that differ in size (see Niklas [74]; Tyree and Ewers [111]; Dewar et al. [21]). The only widely cited general model that integrates the salient features as a complete system for distributing resources from rootlet to leaf is the simplistic and often criticized “pipe model” [99].