Biophysical Effects on the Scaling of Plant Growth, Form, and Ecology

Abstract

Abstract Physical laws and processes influence the ability of plants to exchange mass and energy with their external environments, thereby directly influencing global ecosystem functions such as water and CO2 cycles. Six fundamental physical laws and processes (e.g., Fick’s law of diffusion and the Euler–Greenhill equation for elastic self-similarity) are reviewed in the context of how they affect growth, body size, shape, and ecology. This review shows that biophysical effects on energy–mass exchange rates significantly influence the scaling of plant growth and form, while simultaneously providing opportunities for adaptation and the exploration of unoccupied regions in the plant morphospace.