The mainstay of MST, the scaling between leaf mass, ml, and total plant biomass, mt, is widely held to follow the 3/4 power scaling rule ml ∝ mt 3/4 (Niklas 2004; Price et al. 2010).
The root treatment affected the slope of the relation between fine root mass and leaf mass, and kin treatment affected both the slope and the y-intercept (table 1).
Here leaf dynamics implies changes in leaf mass and life expectancy determined by the balance between leaf birth and death (Bazzaz and Harper, 1977; Chabot and Hicks, 1982; Kikuzawa, 1983; Harper, 1989; Ackerly and Bazzaz, 1995; Hikosaka, 2005).
Mangrove leaf longevity is probably linked to internal and external factors, such as salt concentration, changes in nutrient concentration, leaf mass and area and herbivory among others.
Mean residence time and dry mass productivity were calculated per leaf number, leaf area, leaf mass and leaf N (collectively termed 'leaf variables') in order to analyse leaf dynamics and its effect on plant growth.
The total leaf mass and area, leaf area efficiency (shoot growth per unit leaf area, EA), area-based leaf N content (NA), total leaf N pool (NL) and leaf N efficiency (shoot growth per unit leaf N, EN) were assessed.
Table S2: analysis of variance for the effects of stand density and plant age on leaf number, leaf area, leaf mass and leaf nitrogen of X. canadense plants.
Leaf mass per area (LMA, g m−2) and leaf N per area (LNA, g N m−2) were calculated and used to estimate leaf mass and N of focal plants, respectively.
In contrast, branch leaves showed no significant difference in MRT in leaf number and leaf area, but significantly higher MRT in leaf mass and leaf N in the open stand.
Using the contemporary ecophysiological terminology, climbers should thus have a lower stem mass ratio (i.e. ratio of stem dry mass to whole-plant biomass) and greater leaf mass and area ratios (respectively, ratios of total leaf mass or leaf area to whole-plant mass) than self-supporting plants.
