The goal of these practices is to achieve the proper balance of fruit and foliage (leaf area) to maximize (or optimize) production of ripe, quality fruit.
Tree growth was highly correlated with accumulated foliage area, but bole-wood production per unit leaf area (growth efficiency) was similar for both pine species.
The leaf area index (LAI) and fraction of photosynthetically active radiation (FPAR) absorbed by the vegetation are key biophysical measures of canopy foliage area and light harvesting potential.
Canopy transmittance was estimated using All Echo Cover Index (ACI), and the mean projection of unit foliage area was obtained using no-intercept regression with field measured LAIe.
Segmenting the canopy into cubic volumes –or voxels- provides a convenient means to compute light transmission statistics and describe the spatial distribution of foliage area in tree crowns.
In both species, increases in light availability resulted in larger net assimilation rate (NAR, total plant biomass production rate per unit leaf area), root mass fraction (FR) and leaf mass per unit area (MA), but reductions in leaf area ratio (LAR, foliage area per total plant dry mass), stem mass fraction (FS) and leaf mass fraction (FL).
The LAI is calculated by using the Beer gap fraction model on the assumption of spherical leaf angle distribution that takes the G value (the projection of unit foliage area on the plane perpendicular to the view direction θ) as constant at 0.5.
The crown foliage area was almost stable throughout the year.
Homeostatic control of the crown foliage area may be accompanied by the existence of ecophysiological mechanisms in R. stylosa.
The contribution of old leaves to crown area decreased progressively with crown growth as new leaves progressively contributed more than 80% of the total crown foliage area.
