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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Plant Sci.

Sec. Functional Plant Ecology

Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpls.2025.1650196

Non-Destructive Prediction of Shoot-Level Leaf Area and Biomass in Indocalamus Bamboo via Scaling Laws

Provisionally accepted
  • 1Leshan Normal University, Leshan, China
  • 2Nanjing Forestry University, Nanjing, China
  • 3Universiteit Antwerpen, Antwerp, Belgium
  • 4Cornell University, Ithaca, United States

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

This study addresses the critical need for efficient phenotyping methods in plant ecology by exploring predictive models for total leaf area per shoot (AT) and total leaf dry mass per shoot (MT), which are both key determinants of photosynthetic capacity and carbon allocation, using two fast-growing bamboo species (Indocalamus decorus and I. longiauritus) as proof of concept. Traditional approaches to measuring these traits are destructive and labor-intensive, motivating our exploration of nondestructive proxies based on one-dimensional leaf metrics. We validated the Montgomery equation for individual leaves, confirming a robust proportional relationship between leaf area (A) and the product of length and width (LW) in both Indocalamus species (k ≈ 0.72). Extending this to the shoot level, the Montgomery-Koyama-Smith equation (MKSE) revealed significant proportionality between total leaf area (AT) and the composite metric LKSWKS (where LKS denotes the sum of leaf widths and WKS denotes maximum leaf length, and the subscript "KS" stands for Koyama-Smith). However, power-law scaling analysis demonstrated allometric, non-isometric relationships for AT vs. LKSWKS (with a scaling exponent α < 1), indicating diminishing leaf area expansion per unit dimensional increase, and AT vs. total leaf dry mass (MT) (α < 1), indicating an increased biomass investment per unit area (i.e., increasing leaf mass per unit area) in larger shoots. These findings validate using simplified onedimensional metrics that enable accurate, non-destructive prediction of shoot-level functional traits, advancing phenotyping in bamboo ecology, which may hold true more generally for other types of plants.

Keywords: Montgomery equation, Montgomery-Koyama-Smith equation, Proportional relationship, Scaling relationship, Total leaf area, total leaf dry mass

Received: 19 Jun 2025; Accepted: 28 Aug 2025.

Copyright: © 2025 Fu, Shi, Gielis and Niklas. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

* Correspondence:
Peijian Shi, Nanjing Forestry University, Nanjing, China
Karl J. Niklas, Cornell University, Ithaca, United States

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