BACKGROUND The effect of herbivory on plant fitness varies widely. Understanding the causes of this variation is of considerable interest because of its implications for plant population dynamics and trait evolution. We experimentally defoliated the annual herb Arabidopsis thaliana in a natural population in Sweden to test the hypotheses that (a) plant fitness decreases with increasing damage, ...

Chlorophyll meters are widely used to guide nitrogen (N) management by monitoring leaf N status in agricultural systems, but the effects of environmental factors and leaf characteristics on leaf N estimations are still unclear. In the present study, we estimated the relationships among SPAD readings, chlorophyll content and leaf N content per leaf area for seven species grown in multiple enviro...

Comparisons among shade leaves of seven adult rubber tree plants In rubber trees the raw material for latex synthesis becomes, in short term, from the photosynthetic process performed mostly by leaves under sub-saturate radiation. In this study were evaluated and compared the following parameters in six clones selected by Instituto Agronômico de Campinas (IAC) with one another and with the trad...

This study evaluated the tolerance of mango cultivars ‘Haden’, ‘Palmer’, ‘Tommy Atkins’ and ‘Uba’ grafted on rootstock ‘Imbú’ to salt stress using chlorophyll fluorescence. Plants were grown in modified Hoagland solution containing 0, 15, 30, and 45 mmol L-1 NaCl. At 97 days the parameters of the chlorophyll fluorescence (F0, Fm, Fv, F0/Fm, Fv/Fm, Fv’/Fm’, ΦPSII = [(Fm’-Fs)/(Fm’)], D = (1Fv’/Fm...

Taro, Colocasia esculenta (L.) Schott, is the most important species from the Araceae family. The leaf area (LA) is important for the interception of solar radiation and for the biomass production. The light extinction coefficient (k) is related to the leaf inclination angle, leaf arrangement, regarding the Leaf Area Index (LAI), providing an indication of the plants efficiency on intercepting ...

In this research, leaf area prediction model was developed for some leaf-used maize (Zea mays L.) cultivars namely Coluna, Luce, Maveric, Ranchero, TTM-813, Zamora and RX-788 grown in Black Sea region of Turkey. Lamina width, length and leaf area were measured without destroying the leaf to develop the models. The actual leaf areas of the plants were measured by PLACOM Digital Planimeter and mu...

Previous research indicates a correlation between leaf area index (LAI) and yield of full-season soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merrill], which is a single crop planted early in the season. Leaf area index values of at least 3.5-4.0 in the reproductive stages are required for maximum potential yield. It is unknown how yields of double-crop soybean, which is planted late into harvested small grain fi...

Leaf aging is a fundamental driver of changes in leaf traits, thereby regulating ecosystem processes and remotely sensed canopy dynamics. We explore leaf reflectance as a tool to monitor leaf age and develop a spectra-based partial least squares regression (PLSR) model to predict age using data from a phenological study of 1099 leaves from 12 lowland Amazonian canopy trees in southern Peru. Res...