An Evaluation of Leaf Biomass : Length Ratio as a Tool for Nondestructive Assessment in Eelgrass (Zostera marina L.)
The characterization of biomass and its dynamics provides valuable information for the assessment of natural and transplanted eelgrass populations. The need for simple, nondestructive assessments has led to the use of the leaf biomass-to-length ratio for converting leaf-length measurements, which ca...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Wiley
2012-01-01
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| Series: | The Scientific World Journal |
| Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1100/2012/543730 |
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| author | Hector Echavarria-Heras Elena Solana-Arellano Kun-Seop Lee Shinya Hosokawa Ernesto Franco-Vizcaíno |
| author_facet | Hector Echavarria-Heras Elena Solana-Arellano Kun-Seop Lee Shinya Hosokawa Ernesto Franco-Vizcaíno |
| author_sort | Hector Echavarria-Heras |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | The characterization of biomass and its dynamics provides valuable information for the assessment of natural and transplanted eelgrass populations. The need for simple, nondestructive assessments has led to the use of the leaf biomass-to-length ratio for converting leaf-length measurements, which can be easily obtained, to leaf growth rates through the plastochrone method. Using data on leaf biomass and length collected in three natural eelgrass populations and a mesocosm, we evaluated the suitability of a leaf weight-to-length ratio for nondestructive assessments. For the data sets considered, the isometric scaling that sustains the weight-to-length proxy always produced inconsistent fittings, and for leaf-lengths greater than a threshold value, the conversion of leaf length to biomass generated biased estimations. In contrast, an allometric scaling of leaf biomass and length was highly consistent in all the cases considered. And these nondestructive assessments generated reliable levels of reproducibility in leaf biomass for all the ranges of variability in leaf lengths. We argue that the use of allometric scaling for the representation of leaf biomass in terms of length provides a more reliable approach for estimating eelgrass biomass. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-51db410e55894b80aaf2664309d55ec6 |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 1537-744X |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2012-01-01 |
| publisher | Wiley |
| record_format | Article |
| series | The Scientific World Journal |
| spelling | doaj-art-51db410e55894b80aaf2664309d55ec62025-02-03T01:21:06ZengWileyThe Scientific World Journal1537-744X2012-01-01201210.1100/2012/543730543730An Evaluation of Leaf Biomass : Length Ratio as a Tool for Nondestructive Assessment in Eelgrass (Zostera marina L.)Hector Echavarria-Heras0Elena Solana-Arellano1Kun-Seop Lee2Shinya Hosokawa3Ernesto Franco-Vizcaíno4Centro de Investigación Científica y de Educación Superior de Ensenada, Km 107 Carretera Tijuana, 22860 Ensenada, BCS, MexicoCentro de Investigación Científica y de Educación Superior de Ensenada, Km 107 Carretera Tijuana, 22860 Ensenada, BCS, MexicoDepartment of Biology, Pusan National University, Pusan, Republic of KoreaCoastal and Estuarine Environmental Research Group, Port and Airport Research Institute, Nagase, Yokosuka, Kanagawa, JapanCentro de Investigación Científica y de Educación Superior de Ensenada, Km 107 Carretera Tijuana, 22860 Ensenada, BCS, MexicoThe characterization of biomass and its dynamics provides valuable information for the assessment of natural and transplanted eelgrass populations. The need for simple, nondestructive assessments has led to the use of the leaf biomass-to-length ratio for converting leaf-length measurements, which can be easily obtained, to leaf growth rates through the plastochrone method. Using data on leaf biomass and length collected in three natural eelgrass populations and a mesocosm, we evaluated the suitability of a leaf weight-to-length ratio for nondestructive assessments. For the data sets considered, the isometric scaling that sustains the weight-to-length proxy always produced inconsistent fittings, and for leaf-lengths greater than a threshold value, the conversion of leaf length to biomass generated biased estimations. In contrast, an allometric scaling of leaf biomass and length was highly consistent in all the cases considered. And these nondestructive assessments generated reliable levels of reproducibility in leaf biomass for all the ranges of variability in leaf lengths. We argue that the use of allometric scaling for the representation of leaf biomass in terms of length provides a more reliable approach for estimating eelgrass biomass.http://dx.doi.org/10.1100/2012/543730 |
| spellingShingle | Hector Echavarria-Heras Elena Solana-Arellano Kun-Seop Lee Shinya Hosokawa Ernesto Franco-Vizcaíno An Evaluation of Leaf Biomass : Length Ratio as a Tool for Nondestructive Assessment in Eelgrass (Zostera marina L.) The Scientific World Journal |
| title | An Evaluation of Leaf Biomass : Length Ratio as a Tool for Nondestructive Assessment in Eelgrass (Zostera marina L.) |
| title_full | An Evaluation of Leaf Biomass : Length Ratio as a Tool for Nondestructive Assessment in Eelgrass (Zostera marina L.) |
| title_fullStr | An Evaluation of Leaf Biomass : Length Ratio as a Tool for Nondestructive Assessment in Eelgrass (Zostera marina L.) |
| title_full_unstemmed | An Evaluation of Leaf Biomass : Length Ratio as a Tool for Nondestructive Assessment in Eelgrass (Zostera marina L.) |
| title_short | An Evaluation of Leaf Biomass : Length Ratio as a Tool for Nondestructive Assessment in Eelgrass (Zostera marina L.) |
| title_sort | evaluation of leaf biomass length ratio as a tool for nondestructive assessment in eelgrass zostera marina l |
| url | http://dx.doi.org/10.1100/2012/543730 |
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