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AOBPreview originally published online on November 2, 2007
Annals of Botany 2008 101(1):19-23; doi:10.1093/aob/mcm273
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© The Author 2007. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Annals of Botany Company. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Plant Light Interception Can Be Explained via Computed Tomography Scanning: Demonstration with Pyramidal Cedar (Thuja occidentalis, Fastigiata)

Pierre Dutilleul*, Liwen Han and Donald L. Smith

Department of Plant Science, McGill University, Macdonald Campus, 21,111 Lakeshore Road, Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue, Québec, Canada H9X 3V9

* For correspondence. E-mail pierre.dutilleul{at}mcgill.ca

Received: 8 June 2007    Returned for revision: 17 August 2007    Accepted: 14 September 2007    Published electronically: 3 November 2007

Background and Aims: Light interception by the leaf canopy is a key aspect of plant photosynthesis, which helps mitigate the greenhouse effect via atmospheric CO2 recycling. The relationship between plant light interception and leaf area was traditionally modelled with the Beer–Lambert law, until the spatial distribution of leaves was incorporated through the fractal dimension of leafless plant structure photographed from the side allowing maximum appearance of branches and petioles. However, photographs of leafless plants are two-dimensional projections of three-dimensional structures, and sampled plants were cut at the stem base before leaf blades were detached manually, so canopy development could not be followed for individual plants. Therefore, a new measurement and modelling approach were developed to explain plant light interception more completely and precisely, based on appropriate processing of computed tomography (CT) scanning data collected for developing canopies.

Methods: Three-dimensional images of canopies were constructed from CT scanning data. Leaf volumes (LV) were evaluated from complete canopy images, and fractal dimensions (FD) were estimated from skeletonized leafless images. The experimental plant species is pyramidal cedar (Thuja occidentalis, Fastigiata).

Key Results: The three-dimensional version of the Beer–Lambert law based on FD alone provided a much better explanation of plant light interception (R2 = 0·858) than those using the product LV*FD (0·589) or LV alone (0·548). While values of all three regressors were found to increase over time, FD in the Beer–Lambert law followed the increase in light interception the most closely. The delayed increase of LV reflected the appearance of new leaves only after branches had lengthened and ramified.

Conclusions: The very strong correlation obtained with FD demonstrates that CT scanning data contain fundamental information about the canopy architecture geometry. The model can be used to identify crops and plantation trees with improved light interception and productivity.

Key words: Beer–Lambert law, branching pattern, computed tomography scanning, foliage volume, fractal dimension, light interception, photosynthesis, plant structure, pyramidal cedar


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