Towards revealing the transient dynamics in plant biomass allocation pattern

Abstract

AbstractIn addition to allometric biomass partitioning theory, optimal partitioning theory is one of the most important theoretical frame-works in predicting plant biomass allocation patterns. However, focus-ing on the equilibrium state leads to a mismatch between some empirical observations and estimations from optimal hypotheses.To address this issue, I developed a heuristic approach with a quantitative metric to study the transient patterns of plants allocating photosynthetic products to various combinations among plant organ parts. Moreover, the approach also discovers the mech-anisms under which various factors drive the transient patterns.With this approach, I provide a case study and find that the per-turbations of the transient patterns of plant leaf and stem biomass periodically decrease and increase in response to plant height, crown diameter, and projected crown area. Predictions with the approach are well demonstrated by empirical data consisting of global forest plants.Synthesis. The approach here complements the limitations of optimal partitioning theory by revealing the variations of plant photosynthetic partitioning in short time scales. Given the central role of plant biomass allocation pattern in both empirical applica-tions and theoretical foundations, there is a large scope for using this approach to investigate the directions in estimations of carbon stock, stabilized yields in agriculture as well as forest management.