Abstract
Easy, accurate, inexpensive, and nondestructive methods to determine individual leaf area of plants are a useful tool in physiological and agronomic studies. This paper introduces a cost-effective alternative (called here millimeter graph paper method) for standard electronic leaf area meter, using a millimeter graph paper. Investigations were carried out during August–October, 2009-2010, on 33 species, in the Botanical garden of the Banaras Hindu University at Varanasi, India. Estimates of leaf area were obtained by the equation, leaf area (cm2) =x/y, wherexis the weight (g) of the area covered by the leaf outline on a millimeter graph paper, andyis the weight of one cm2of the same graph paper. These estimates were then compared with destructive measurements obtained through a leaf area meter; the two sets of estimates were significantly and linearly related with each other, and hence the millimeter graph paper method can be used for estimating leaf area in lieu of leaf area meter. The important characteristics of this cost-efficient technique are its easiness and suitability for precise, non-destructive estimates. This model can estimate accurately the leaf area of plants in many experiments without the use of any expensive instruments.
Highlights
Leaf area is an important variable for most ecophysiological studies in terrestrial ecosystems concerning light interception, evapotranspiration, photosynthetic efficiency, fertilizers, and irrigation response and plant growth (Blanco and Folegatti [1])
Leaf area estimate is valuable in studies of plant nutrition, plant competition, plant-soil-water relations, plant protection measures, respiration, light reflectance, and heat transfer in plants (Mohsenin [6]), and it is an important parameter in understanding photosynthesis, light interception, water and nutrient use, and crop growth and yield potential (Smart [7]; Williams [8])
Relationships between leaf area of detached leaves estimated by leaf area meter and that estimated by millimeter graph paper method for thirty-three plant species as given in Table 1 show that the two sets of estimates are strongly related with each other for each of the thirty-three species and that the nondestructive estimates by millimeter graph paper method are as good as those obtained destructively by leaf area meter method (Figure 1)
Summary
Leaf area is an important variable for most ecophysiological studies in terrestrial ecosystems concerning light interception, evapotranspiration, photosynthetic efficiency, fertilizers, and irrigation response and plant growth (Blanco and Folegatti [1]). A variety of computerized image analysis equipments and software are available (Brodny et al [10]) They measure quickly, accurately and nondestructively using a portable scanning planimeter (Daughtry [11]); the method is suitable only for small plants with few leaves (Nyakwende et al [12]) and is expensive (Bignami and Rossini [13]). Nondestructive models for leaf area determination have been established for many species such as maize (Stewart and Dwyer [25]), bean (Bhatt and Chanda [26]), taro (Lu et al [24]), white clover (Gamper [27]), sugar beet (Tsialtas and Maslaris [28, 29]), sunflower (Kvet and Marshall [23], Rouphael et al [30]), radish (Salerno et al [31]), zucchini (Rouphael et al [32]), strawberry (Demirsoy et al [33]), grapevines (Manivel and Weaver [21]; Montero et al [14], Williams and Martinson [15]), kiwi (Mendoza-de Gyves et al [34]), chestnut (Serdar and Demirsoy [20]), hazelnut (Cristofori et al [35]), eggplant (Rivera et al [36]), faba bean (Peksen [37]), stevia (Ramesh et al [38]), persimmon (Cristofori et al [39]), medlar (Mendoza-de Gyves et al [40]), small fruits (Fallovo et al [41]), euphorbia (Fascella et al [42]), saffron (Kumar [43]), ginger (Kandiannan et al [44]), roses (Rouphael et al [45]), and watermelon (Rouphael et al [46])
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